The fertile plains of Phrao district, surrounded by the foothills of the Himalayas, are home to both Lanna Thais and a number of ethnic hill tribes living high in the forested hills. The majority of these proud people live far below the poverty line with reported incomes as low as 50 US cents per day.

Providing for a family is difficult enough; providing a good education for one’s children is close to impossible, especially for hill tribe parents who live in tiny villages many miles from the nearest school, with access roads closed during the wet season. Participants in the Chiang Mai University Language Institute’s Cultural Exchange program are hoping to make a difference, in conjunction with the Warm Heart Foundation, a grassroots NGO recently established just outside Phrao town.

The two organisations and their participants are working together to promote equal access to education for all local children, to encourage sustainable development via micro-finance and other programmes and to teach business skills in Phrao, one of the poorest districts in Thailand.

Two dedicated members of CMU’s Cultural Exchange Program are at present prioritizing the most urgent need for the mountain peoples’ school-age children, accommodation. Warm Heart’s compound is near the town’s main schools, a perfect location for a ‘village in the valley’ to house children from far-flung areas during the school year. The foundation is also providing, together with Cultural Exchange program participants, an after-school and Saturday curriculum including English, Thai, Math and Science classes as well as traditional dance and weaving,.

Bob, a highly experienced architect and Dean, an expert in horticulture and landscaping, have committed to costing, designing and supervising the layout of the complex and its new buildings, which will use traditional low-cost materials such as home-made sun-dried straw-bale/mud bricks and bamboo. Plans for the separate dormitories and facilities for boys and girls have been carefully laid out so that a breeze-flow is created in what will become the children’s own space, adjacent to the essential football field and a community building.

The project is a fascinating challenge for Bob, who arrived in Chiang Mai six months ago, and whose career included designs for the ultra-modern Hong Kong Science Park and the City of Dreams casino and hotel complex in Macao. Each eco-friendly building for his Warm Hands project will take six men just one month to complete! As Bob says, ‘Back to Basics!’ Dean, of course, can’t wait to make the entire complex green and beautiful!

A presentation of the project’s zoning plan and details of construction and materials has been made to Warm Heart’s founders, Michael and Evelind, although at present their time is taken up with the small school already in place on the complex and detailed discussion is proving difficult. Funding for the project is crucial, and may pose problems in the present economic climate.

‘Our children are our future’ – especially true in this impoverished area. With good educational facilities, accommodation and training in essential life and business skills for all in eco-friendly, traditional surroundings, the future for this beautiful valley and its diverse inhabitants must surely improve. The CMU Cultural Exchange Program will continue to provide whatever skills are needed to make it happen.

The Ping River, one of the 4 major tributaries of the Chao Phraya River, is a main river which provides water for livelihood to northern and central regions of Thailand. With the length of about 740 km., it joins the Chao Phraya River at Nakhonsawan Province and subsequently drains into the gulf of Thailand in southern area of Bangkok.

Chiang Mai Province is the home of forests and mountains where headwaters and streams originate and form the Upper Ping River Basin covering an area of about 22,000 km². The longitudinal course of the river through Chiang Mai Province is about 250 km. It passes through the provincial town and villages which are residential areas of nearly one million population.

The crucial problems of the Ping River, as well as of other major rivers in Thailand, are diversified and complex. These include the lack of proper planning, administration and management within the fluvial hydrosystems; inadequate environmentally sensitive river engineering projects; deforestation on the mountains which causes severe watershed degradation, heavy soil erosion and deposition in the river channel as well as climatic changes; improper land use; drainage of waste into the river which causes water pollution; and river encroachment. The river encroachment is the unscrupulous personal desire for land by encroachment into the river corridors and water body. This is evinced by filling with soil and other materials and by other practices such as planting some aqua species that cause siltation. At many spots, the width of the river consequently becomes smaller and smaller. In some areas the remaining width of the river is as small as 1/5 of the original width.

The encroachment, deposition and pollution problems have negatively affected the aquatic ecosystem and the biological resources of the river both quantitatively and qualitatively. The amount and quality of water have decreased drastically in the dry season, as have the numbers and types of plants and animals, some becoming extinct. The natural beauty and landscapes of the river are damaged and degraded. Natural, or to be more correctly, man-induced disasters such as flash floods and mudslides once rare in the area have now become annual occurrences.

River Engineering Practices

Conventional river engineering works have become more intrusive, in terms of the scale of modifications as mechanization has increased our ability to modify rivers and their local environment. Any engineering work that modifies the river system has the potential to cause instability and adversely affect the riverine environment. Attempts to impose an unnatural condition on a river can lead to major instability problems unless the river is heavily engineered. In turn, this can cause severe environmental degradation.

The Role of Civil Society in Ping River Restoration

In response to the need to save the Ping River and its environment the members of local communities partake their responsibilities in protecting their river. The “Love Mae Ping River Group” was formed in 1992 and volunteered to clean up the river and to guard against waste disposal and any damage done to the river. The group has grown and expanded into various civic groups. In 1993, the Coordinating Committee for the Protection of the Ping River Basin and Environment (CCPE) has been organized. Its members consist of volunteers who are academics, teachers, students, monks and interested people. Many programmes are set up for both short term and long term goals.

Implementation of the Programmes

In order to solve the river problems, first of all, public consciousness has to be provoked. The CCPE tries to convert crisis into opportunity for river restoration. Since people-centred development is the development by people and for people. Therefore damages to the river, which are caused by the people, must be solved by the people themselves.

Step 1: Awareness raising about the situation and problems

To educate and inform the public about the negative results of river encroachment and the pollution of their river which is caused by wastewater and disposal discharged from households, restaurants and hotels, the CCPE organizes the programmes to mobilize the local people such as town and district administrative officers, youth, teachers, government departments and civil groups including the mass media to be aware of the problems and to take further action.

Activities:

• River survey camps: to learn about the water resources, headwaters in the forest areas, landuse along the river, water pollution and role of youth in river monitoring and surveillance.
• Dialogue seminars: to provide the information on the importance of the river / water for our lives, the problems and effects, then encourage the local people to form groups to tackle the problems together.
• Boat Trips: to survey the quality of the water and analyze the situation, in this activity CCPE involves all sectors in the communities to join especially the mass media in order to distribute the information to the public on river environment as well as solicit comments from communities.
• Education and awareness campaigns.

Step 2: Development of knowledge and skill / River monitoring programme

After the public understands the situation and realizes the problems, they are encouraged to form groups to tackle the problems and take some action. Different volunteer groups for river protection are formed such as Ping River Preservation Volunteers Group, Love Mae Ping River Group and River Monitoring Group. The CCPE tries to empower the local people and provide them with more knowledge and skill as well as encourage them to involve more people in the programme and organize various kinds of activities to promote people participation in the process.

Activities:

• Training/ Workshops to check the quality of the water by using chemical test and biological method
• Launch guarding activities along the target locations by volunteers at a weekly/monthly basis to protect the river environment
• Field trips/ study tours in order to get the first hand experiences e.g. the process, strategy, implementation, impact, success and failure of other groups. Such programmes can expand the network and linkage at the same time
• Organize fish sanctuaries and aquatic organism conservation zones which are looked after by the local people

Step 3: Cooperation and Networking

To save the river effectively, cooperation among all concerned organizations and individuals is of utmost importance. The CCPE has its role as a coordinating agent between the civic groups and various government departments, e.g. the River Authority of the Harbour Department, the Land Department, the Irrigation Department and the Public Health Department as well as local administrative organizations at the village, tambol or sub-district, district and provincial levels. River Revival Committees are set up with full participation from various partners. Strong links and networks are created among towns, villages, volunteers, monasteries, schools, universities and mass media.

Activities:

• River watch networking
• River Revival Campaign
• Local Radio / Newspaper Campaign
• Amendment of Municipal acts / Laws / Policies
• Establishment of riverside parks
• River corridor registration

Results and impacts

• Towns and villages in response to the river crisis, have joined together with CCPE to study the problems and exchange information in order to convert crisis into opportunity for river revival.

• Town and village leaders have combined traditional methods of thinking and beliefs with modern values regarding conservation and passed these on the others. The traditional belief and respect in the goddess of mother river (Pra Mae Kong Ka), the indigenous wisdom such as the river life–prolonging ceremonies based upon local religious beliefs are used to raise awareness, create and strengthen the connection between people and their river.
• The non–fishing zones as well as aquatic organism conservation zones have been established by many villages. A committee in each village is set up to oversee the zones and make rules and establish clear and strict fines. The pressure of local social standards is also applied to ensure compliance.
• Funds have been set up, to support the carrying out of group activities on a continuous and sustainable basis.
• Changes in curriculum of local schools and universities.
• All sectors in the society are involved: homes / monasteries / schools / business / industry / mass media/ etc.
• Public river fronts and parks along the riversides as well as nature study centres are being established in many towns and villages

Roles of the Government Sectors

In response to the voice of the people and civil society organizations, in September 2001, the Thai Cabinet and the National Environment Board have agreed on the policy and work plan for conservation and development of rivers and canals throughout the whole country as follows:

1. Designate September 20th as “the national river and canal environment conservation day”
2. Designate the years 2001 – 2003 as “the years of rivers and canals conservation”
3. Agreement on the policy and work plan for conservation and development of river and canal environment and pilot projects
4. Agreement on setting up a nation committee as an implementing agency for the conservation and development of river and canal environment
5. The Budget Bureau to provide budget for implementation according to the policy, work plan , and the pilot projects

Dr. Wasan Jompakdee
Chairman, The Coordinating Committee for the Protection of the Ping River Basin and the Environment (CCPE)