School collapse causes alarm among residents
APINYA WIPATAYOTIN
SAMUT PRAKAN : The recent collapse of the Ban Khun Samut school building in Ban Khun Samut Chin is undeniable evidence of how vulnerable this small village at the mouth of the Chao Phraya river is to the coastal environment.
The school is surrounded by mangroves and sits on forest land, about 500 metres from the shoreline in Phra Samut Chedi district. At high tide the building's supporting piles are partially submerged in the brackish water, which had gradually eroded them away.
Last week, the 30-year-old one-storey building finally collapsed. Fortunately, it happened on a Sunday when the school was closed, so no one was injured.
School principal Kamjad Suvarnapan blamed the collapse on the ageing structure and the corrosive action of salt water.
Although some people blame the subsidence on coastal erosion, Mr Kamjad said a small seawall nearby provides some protection.
Ban Khun Samut Chin has been in the spotlight recently as the country's worst example of coastal erosion.
A study found that about 25 metres of this coastal community's shoreline in the upper part of the Gulf of Thailand is eaten away each year. The village's population has dropped from 600 to 420 in recent years.
The hardest-hit zone is about a kilometre from the school.
Ban Khun Samut Chin resident Prasert In-uam has moved his house five times in recent years to escape the advancing Gulf waters.
The intruding sea water affects not only residential areas, but also aquaculture along the coast as many people earn their living farming prawns and cockles.
To save their farms and houses, many villagers have built small seawalls of soil. However, these are rather weak and have to be rebuilt quite often, especially in the rainy season.
''These seawalls are unlikely to survive the next monsoon, so we need to think of something else to save our farms,'' said Mr Prasert, who has been fighting coastal erosion in the province for more than 30 years.
Residents have tried strengthening their seawalls with rocks and old tyres, but it has not worked. Without adequate funding or technical know-how they don't expect the situation to improve.
Samon Khengsamut, Ban Khun Samut Chin's headman, said authorities do have a coastal erosion-prevention plan, but Mr Prasert says this will only bring more problems if implemented.
He said officials wanted to construct a sandbag wall along the coast, but residents fear that if the bags break up the sand from them would damage the area's unique ecology, particularly the mud beach which is a crucial habitat and nursing ground for marine life.
The villagers would prefer to have a 12.5-kilometre wavebreaker starting from Ban Laem Sing and stretching to the mouth of Khun Ratpinij Jai canal.
Designed by a team of engineers and coastal experts from Chulalongkorn University, led by Thawat Jarupongsakul, the barrier would consist of 500 concrete pillars arranged in a zig-zag formation with the aim of breaking the waves and preventing them from damaging the mud beach. This would also help build up the beach and prevent the mud from being washed away.
The team has built an experimental wavebreaker in Ban Khun Samut Chin, and another two are planned for Bang Pu, also in Samut Prakan, and Mahachai in Samut Sakhon province.
The team will conclude its study in September. The results are eagerly awaited by the people of Ban Khun Samut Chin.
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