Five resorts in Ratchaburi's Suan Phung district are illegally diverting the local water supply and face a police probe, authorities say.
Pol Lt Gen Prawut Thawornsiri, national assistant police chief and police spokesman, said police will look at whether the resort operators have encroached on public property or broken any other laws. A total of five resorts are diverting water from a local creek without permits, causing a water shortage, he said.
The investigation comes after hundreds of villagers lodged a complaint with authorities that the Suan Phung Resort is blocking the waterway they use and causing a water shortage. Authorities have now found another four resorts in the area also diverting the water supply for their own use.
The Suan Phung Resort, which is currently being probed for forest encroachment, is owned by former Samut Sakhon Immigration Police chief Kowit Muangnual and his wife Sudathip, who are implicated in the alleged criminal network led by former Central Investigation Bureau chief Pongpat Chayapan.
Pol Lt Gen Prawut said the owners of Suan Phung resort have been charged with forest encroachment and obstructing the waterway. The upper part of the resort's compound was illegally acquired as it sits on part of a forest, he said.
The couple is likely to face a fresh charge over the man-made channel which the resort has created to divert water, he said. Villagers had been afraid to lodge a complaint against the couple because of their influence.
Pol Lt Gen Prawut said the resort operators have been asked to divert water back into the waterway.