Sea barricades in Samut Prakan proving effective

Dr Yoshiki Saito, from the World Bank, said inspection showed that the triangular piles set up in 2006 worked well at protecting coastal erosion and trapping sediment. The 250-metre Khun Samut Jeen 49A2 barrier was put up by a 15-member team from the Thailand Research Fund in the worst hit area of the Khun Samut Jeen village in Phra Samut Chedi district's Tambon Laem Fa Pa.

Team leader, Chulalongkorn University's Assoc Prof Thanawat Jarupongsakul, said the coast of the village had expanded by a whole metre a year after the barriers had been put up. "Those piles control the power of the waves efficiently, so sediment is continuously accumulated, resulting in a one-metre expansion of the area," Thanawat said yesterday at a seminar.

The team plans to expand the project to nearby villages of Khok Kham and Klong Tam Ru with kilometre-long barriers and cover the 120km coastline from the mouth of the Chao Phya tributary in Bang Pakong to the mouth of the tributary in Petchaburi, Thanawat said.

The installation of each kilometre-long barrier would cost between Bt40 million and Bt50 million.

The research team expects the project to increase the area of the Khun Samut Jeen village by 78 rai over the next 11 years. Without the barriers it would be losing 203 rai over the next 20 years.

Meanwhile, Saito warned the team that other factors, such as dredging and rising sea levels, could still cause erosion and that growing mangrove forests would be another effective means in containing erosion.