Farmers oppose destruction of dykes
Farmers in Chiang Mai yesterday urged the government to review its plan to demolish the Phyakham dyke and two others in Saraphi district, saying it would lead to water shortages in the area.
"We won't allow the three dykes to be destroyed," Somboon Boonchu, vice chairman of the Phyakham dyke committee, said yesterday. He said his committee and those of the Nong-phueng and Tha Wangtan dykes did not agree with the government's plan to destroy the three dykes to build a sluice gate. Somboon said the farmers would submit a letter to caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra when he attends a meeting today on solving the flooding problem in Chiang Mai. Thaksin begins an official tour of the North today and will return to Bangkok on Thursday. Somboon said the destruction of the three dykes would not help prevent floods as claimed, but would instead create a water shortage for farmers in the area. This would lead to a war over water supplies among affected farmers in Saraphi and Muang districts of Chiang Mai and some areas of Lamphun province, he said. He said the farmers would send 10 representatives to a meeting called by the Regional Irrigation Office 1 on Tuesday to explain the sluice-gate project and its Bt800-million construction cost.
Kwandao Jitpana The Nation Chiang Mai
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