Water

Country Water Actions: Thailand
People's Irrigation Communities (Muang Fai) Conservation and Development Project at Mae Klang Sub-River Basin

This project was coordinated by the Coordinating Committee for the Protection of the Ping River Basin and Environment (CCPE), a non-government organization based in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The objectives of the project were to:

1. Establish a People's Muang Fai Study Center
2. Strengthen local capacity for water management and livelihood development

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Chomthong District is located about 50 km south of Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand. It has an area of 712,297 km², with the topography largely dominated by the floodplains along Ping River and the Mae Klang sub-river basin, which have benefited agricultural production of rice, longan, soybean and other crops in the area.

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The Project has accomplished the following:

• Identification of ten strategic locations or stations

These stations feature and showcase indigenous water management and agricultural practices and some notable natural characteristics of the area.

• Training activities and study tours

Three study groups catering separately to the Women's Group (80 participants), Local Government Officials (90 participants), and Muang Fai members and officials (60 participants), have already participated in training and study tour activities at the Huai Hong Khrai Royal Development Study Center (HHKRDSC) and in Maejo University.

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• Communities and government officials have realized the need for improving the health of forests and watersheds for more effective water management.
• Involving actual farmers groups in the whole Mae Klang river basin has provided a model for participatory watershed management.
• The project has shown that a participatory, two-way communication system, wherein the government sets a conducive atmosphere for sustainable environmental and water management while strengthening local communities as partners and counterparts, is far more effective.
• A conscious effort to impart to the youth the value of sustainable water management is necessary to ensure that traditional knowledge and new knowledge and technologies could be merged towards more effective management of natural resources.
• The new government policy in educational curriculum development, wherein local school administrators are now allowed to define 30% of the curriculum content, provides an opportunity for further local education on integrated water resources management by linking with local schools, particularly on developing and introducing the water syllabus for high school students.
• The Project realized that learning science and technology at the project sites and exposing project beneficiaries to the modern and traditional methods of teaching would be effective.
• Working with local government units and line agencies have provided an impetus to the project's initiatives.

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Further activities to be implemented in the project area, according to the Muang Fai members' suggestions and based on the initiatives of this project, are the following:

• Provision of support to the Wang Fai Study/Tour Center (MFSTC)
• Development of strategic programme for the management and operations of the MFSTC
• Provision of financial and technical support for pilot small-scale livelihood activities
• Institutionalization of the roles of the Muang Fai associations in local planning committees
• Conduct of more broad-based public awareness strategy on water management