Most of the Thai coastlines, which extend for more than 3150 km, have been facing erosion due to different reasons. Chantaburi coastlines are one of those with the severe coast erosion problem as some of its coastlines have eroded as deep as 1 kilometer into the land within 10 years. Although specialists and coastal residents believe that natural disasters such as large waves and monsoons were the main cause of erosion, however Dr. Pornsri Suthanaruk, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, pointed out that the most concerning reason are the way people use the land and make changes to its surfaces; such as building shrimp ponds or marine life which can lead to weakness to the land’s stability. He added that the Marine and Coastal Resources Department is running a project to build bamboo fences to reduce erosion in mangrove forests.
Nuanchan Boonlua – Ko Perd villager said
“We lived here, and the sea was far away not so close like how it is now. We demolished this house a couple of weeks ago because we cannot live here anymore. The waves keep surging. This one was a pond with a ridge-like this. And below was another level and one more level further. It was not mud like this. It was once solid dirt which we could walk on it to catch fishes and crabs. Some trees grew on it.”
Kanitha Suadech – Ko Perd villager said
“It cannot be held any longer. We have been helping ourselves all this time. Before, there were fish and crab ponds. I have been here since I was young. I was born here. We have the deed. We do pay land tax every year. There was once when the land grew back out like for a kilometer. And the tree started to grow. It took ten years to grow back. But it took only half a year to erode back in.”
Booncherd Udomlerdwanasin – Chief Executive of Ko Perd Subdistrict Administrative Organization said
“It is caused by natural disasters – big waves, monsoon, etc. Also, the way government agencies block waterways with woods and dams here and there might affect unblocked areas. There have been agencies such as the marine department and DMCR that came to us. We held a meeting and Ko Perd was ranked level 5 for the erosion. We submitted an inquiry and DMCR built the bamboo fences. But as you know, bamboo did not last longer than 2 years.”
Pornsri Suthanaruk – Deputy Director-General of Department of Marine and Coastal Resources said
“The most important thing is the stability of the land around mangroves forest was destroyed. It might be the way people use the land as shrimp or marine lives ponds. And the change of the land’s surface went through the coastlines. As I just said, we broke our walls. And thus, coastline erosion happens easily.”
“DMCR plays the role of restoring any damaged resources. Our agencies work together and now we are running a project to build bamboo fences to decrease the severity of the erosion in mangroves forest.”
“It took 3 years. And we need to do nothing – only build the bamboo fence and watch over it. This one very well proves that our execution is effective in terms of increasing forest”
Source : A24