Saithian Kerdsomboon had always wondered when this day would come. For years he had heard rumours, trickles of news about being chased out by city officials, yet nothing had ever happened. This time, however, he knew it would be different.
On the edge: Communities along Lat Phrao canal will be the first to go under a BMA pilot project to widen Bangkok’s khlongs. The plan will eventually be expanded to 1,160 of the city’s waterways. (Photo by Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn)
“I can see it with my own eyes,” said Mr Saithian, who at 59 supports himself as a day labourer and runs a small grocery store out of his home in Ruammitrangsatta, a small community which straddles a canal behind Don Mueang airport.
“This time, the city has shown us that it’s really happening and we have to act now.”
Mr Saithian is one of thousands who live on the banks of Bangkok’s khlongs in loosely organised and self-governed communities many consider to be illegal settlements.
An estimated 94,000 people in 23,500 households live on these narrow strips of land across the city, some in concrete, fortified houses and others on wooden stilts right above the water.
These people make up much of Bangkok’s low-income communities — the people who populate the city’s markets, work in 7-Elevens and survive on little more than 300 baht a day. And for decades, most of these communities have remained where they are, without paying rent.
But more than half of these residents — 59,000 people — could soon be forced out under a plan to widen the canal network.
Despite past efforts by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to organise these settlements, for the most part they have been left to themselves.
“It’s like we’re in a blind spot,” Mr Saithian said. “The district officers rarely come here. We depend on each other.”
In an ambitious measure approved by the National Council for Peace and Order in March, all of these communities will be forced to move or reorganise by 2017. Citing a need to expand drainage capacity and rid the khlongs of illegal settlements, the Bangkok Drainage and Sewerage Department has launched a 2.4-billion-baht plan to construct embankments along 1,160 canals in the city.
The Community Organisations and Development Institute (Codi), an independent public organisation under the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, has been tasked with moving the people who live along these embankments.
The measure is immediate and urgent — under the timeline set by the prime minister’s office, construction of new houses must begin by the end of this month. And it will be the first time the government has made organising these illegal settlements part of the national agenda — meaning if communities resist, they would be breaking the law.
“Every government has tried to work on this issue, but until now they’ve been unable to do it,” said Palakorn Wongkornkaew, director of Codi. “But now that this is a government order, we know that this has to happen.”
In some communities, work has already begun. District officers have started surveying, while development officers from Codi are helping residents draw up plans for relocation. The project’s success, however, will depend on the willingness of the communities themselves: the government has set no clear measure for where communities will go and communities themselves must decide how they will live.
Though many organisations and community members see this project as a path towards a more legal, stable and organised future, the project has also left hundreds confused and uncertain about where they will go and how much their lives will change.
CLEAR NEED
In Ruammitrangsatta, a brown line on a utility pole marks just how high the area flooded in 2011. Like many Bangkok residents, Mr Saithian remembers how much the floods affected him and his community.
“The water got up to our waists,” he said.
The 2011 flooding, which the World Bank estimates cost 1.43 trillion baht in damage and economic losses, is one of the main reasons the government is so insistent on clearing the khlongs.
“Bangkok was not designed to be a city that accepted water from other provinces,” said Kangwan Deesuwan, director-general of the Bangkok Drainage and Sewerage Department. “The khlongs are vital passageways for drainage. They’re like Bangkok’s blood vessels and we need them to be clear for drainage.”
The department hopes building these embankments along Khlong Lat Phrao, as well as a floodgate, will increase the canal’s water flow from 15 cubic metres to 40 cubic metres per second.
But in order to build these embankments, the department must reclaim at least 1.5 metres of land on each side of the khlong. Any houses that protrude onto the water — of which there are hundreds — will have to be demolished. The department hopes to begin work by the middle of next month.
“We will construct and evict at the same time,” Mr Kangwan said.
Yet the department’s plans, particularly its initial proposal to widen the khlong area to 38 metres, immediately raised concerns.
Wijitbutsaba Marome, a lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture and Planning at Thammasat University, said the department’s current plans would create more burden than boon.
“Expanding the khlongs would help improve the city’s water flow, but we also want to point out how significant the consequences are,” said Ms Wijitbusaba, who is part of a research team working with Codi to evaluate and create proposals for the project.
Ms Wijitbusaba estimates that building embankments would only increase the drainage capacity of the Lat Phrao khlong by a small amount — not enough to prevent flooding in the long run.
Photos by Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn
Removing the illegal settlements, on the other hand, could create an indirect socio-economic loss of five million baht, not only for the community members themselves but also for the industries in which they work, Ms Wijitbusaba said.
“Bangkok would lose a huge part of its labour force and service industry if people were to move,” she said.
Nattawut Usavagovitwong, director at the Centre for Integrated Socio-Spatial Research at Sripatum University, said the BMA should take a wider look at the khlongs' use as a public space.
Mr Nattawut and Ms Wijitbusaba, as well as researchers from other universities in the city, have drafted proposals that take into account both drainage and land use options for different sections of the khlong. They are still waiting to discuss these plans with the Bangkok Drainage and Sewerage Department.
“The BMA seems to view the khlongs only as a drainage system, but they have to consider that these spaces are communities too — and that there are opportunities for these spaces,” Mr Nattawut said. “Development does not have to mean eviction.”
The department’s Mr Kangwan disagreed.
“These are illegal communities which have used and polluted the lands for decades,” he said. “Have you ever asked them if they’ve helped society? They don’t deserve to be there.”
AN INVISIBLE COMMUNITY
Khlong communities, from the outside, do not paint a pretty picture. In many places, conditions remain poor. Most residents do not have official housing registrations, which means plumbing and electricity have to be bought and shared for higher, off-market rates. Trash is often dumped directly into the polluted water. And because of the constant threat of eviction, many are reluctant to invest in improving their homes.
But not all communities are a portrait of poverty. In Ruammitrangsatta, where Mr Saithian lives, the income divides are clear. On one side, makeshift houses jut out onto the water, reams of trash soaking the earth beneath. Directly across, modest brick-and-mortar homes line the street. Many in the community work as day labourers and motorcycle taxi drivers, but many also serve as teachers and government officers.
In some areas, communities have already taken steps to organise. In the Bang Bua Cheung Saphan Mai 1 community in Laksi district, most houses stand away from the banks of the khlongs. A concrete footpath connects the homes.
“This used to be the kind of place that people would be ashamed to bring their partners home to,” said Somchai Jinprayun, president of the Bang Bua Cheung Saphan Mai 1 community and a representative of the Network to Develop and Improve Khlong Communities. “We were slums — I’ll admit it. But we have taken a lot of steps to improve these communities. And what will happen if we have to move?”
‘NO EVICTIONS’
Codi’s plan for relocation and reorganisation will give communities three options — they can remain in the same place but must enter Codi’s Baan Mankong project; they can resettle parts of their homes and find new land with Codi’s assistance; or they can move to residential projects built by the National Housing Authority.
Up the river: Somniang Boonleu still has no clear idea of what will happen to his community. (Photo by Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn)
Most Codi development officers favour the first option, which would allow residents to remain where they are but require them to reorganise their communities and register as legal tenants.
To enter the Baan Mankong project, residents would need to form a cooperative, contribute to a savings group and begin paying rent to the Treasury Department, which owns much of the land by the khlongs.
Residents would enter into a 30-year lease with the Treasury Department and pay roughly 270 baht a year.
“We want people to understand that it’s not about evicting or chasing anyone out,” said Mr Palakorn, the Codi director.
“It’s about helping people envision and create better communities for themselves and, in the larger scheme, return space to the public.”
The Baan Mankong project — which translates to “secure housing” — has existed since 2003 and has been cited by many international organisations as a model for slum redevelopment. The model emphasises participation and self-direction.
“Everyone has to cooperate,” Mr Palakorn said. “Otherwise it won’t work.”
MIXED HISTORY
Efforts to remove and relocate slum communities in Bangkok are not new. Evictions were common practice in Bangkok during the 1980s and ’90s, with the best-known of those attempts taking place in 1991, when the World Bank and International Monetary Fund held a joint international conference in the then newly-built Queen Sirikit Convention Centre. To prepare for the conference, the government evicted more than 2,000 slum residents who lived near the convention centre. Any shanties that remained were hidden from view by a metal barrier.
Khlong communities in particular have been a long-standing problem for Bangkok because of land and politics. While the BMA pushed forward a policy of eviction and reorganisation, local politicians flooded the communities with money, temporary addresses and promises of stable development.
“One side pushed, one side pulled, until it became a territory that no one knew what to do with,” Mr Nattawut said.
District offices, which handle registrations and financial support for khlong communities, tended to focus on quality of life programmes over land security.
“We don’t deal with the community’s land rights because it’s not within our jurisdiction,” said one development officer at the Don Muang district office.
Yet this government measure may actually work because it prioritises a more bottom-up process, said Somsook Boonyabancha, secretary-general of the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights, a network of community organisations and NGOs focused on urban poor development.
“The government just has to make sure that they look at it from the community perspective, not from the legal, systematic perspective,” Ms Somsook said. “Models are easy. You could come up with 100 models, it’s not that hard. But it’s up to the people who will decide whether those models work.”
COMMUNITY ACTION
To a certain extent, this bottom-up process is happening. In Rimklong Pattana, a community of about 1,000 people in Sai Mai district, 37-year-old Piyamas Ruangkij took charge of figuring out where her community would go. Because of the community’s location between the khlong and land slotted for the development of a new MRT line, all 252 houses would have to be demolished.
“I have to admit that I was shocked when I heard the news,” said Ms Piyamas, who runs a grocery store from her home and has lived in the community for more than 30 years. “It all happened very fast — we heard about it in June, and we started having meetings in July.”
After several meetings with her community and Codi officers, Ms Piyamas found a new block of land just 5km away that would house people in the community. She and the rest of her family will be moving next month. It will be the first time they’ve lived in apartment buildings in a gated community.
“I am relieved that we’ve found a place and that we will have a more secure place to live in the future, but in all honesty, I do wish we could have stayed,” Ms Piyamas said. “I wonder if we’ll get the same kind of breeze there that we do here.”
Not everyone in Rimklong Pattana has gone along with the plan, however. In a map of the community, some houses still have red markers, showing that they have not yet decided to move or enter into the Baan Mankong project.
But even if residents do not cooperate, they will eventually have to leave.
“We are giving them options to decide for themselves up to a certain point,” said Pissanu Charoennukul, assistant director of the Don Muang district office. “But after that point, we will proceed and enforce the process by way of law.”
UNCERTAIN FUTURES
On a bright Sunday afternoon, Ruammitrangsatta residents gathered in the community square to register their houses and claim land rights. It was the first time residents had formally counted and registered the number of people per household. People crowded around maps of their areas to find out which houses would be allowed to remain where they are, and which would have to move.
But after almost half a day of deliberations, the district concluded that only half of the community showed up, and that was not enough. The community would have to meet again, but at the district office.
“I was disappointed,” said Mr Somthian, who has led the effort to recruit residents into a community fund. He said he spends anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours trying to explain the situation to fellow residents.
“Even though we know that this is the real thing, I keep having to convince people that this is for their betterment,” he said. “We really have to work together. If we do that, we’ll get to stay.”
Because there is enough land in the surrounding area, not everyone in Ruammitrangsattha will have to move. Some houses will move up from the water, and houses that remain on land will need to share their space.
But for some, the future doesn’t seem quite as bright, nor clear.
In Huai Khwang district, Ruamjai Piboon 2 community leader Somniang Boonleu has only heard rumours. The Bangkok Drainage and Sewerage Department put up a notice in early June about a plan to construct embankments. But no one — not from Codi, the sewerage department or the district office — has given him a clear idea of what will happen.
All he knows is that the department wanted a width of 38 metres, and as soon as he heard, he started measuring. Thirty-eight metres would mean the loss of his house. It would also mean the loss of the childcare centre, their vocational training centre and the small dock he built for the community through district funding.
He like everyone else, fears the potential financial losses of having to move and relocate. But what he fears most is losing his community.
“I don’t necessarily need to live near the khlong,” Mr Somniang said. “But just let me live here with my community.”
Photos by Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn
‘In a blind spot’: Saithian Kerdsomboon is leading the fight against eviction in Ruammitrangsatta. (Photo by Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn)
Making waves: City officials inspect Lat Phrao canal, which will be the first to be widened. (Photo by Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn)
Troubled waters: City Hall is concerned that shanty communities like Rimklong Pattana obstruct the flow of water and exacerbate flooding. (Photo by Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn)
In the shadows: A woman watches television at her home in Ruamjai Piboon 2 community. (Photo by Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn)
According to plan: A development officer from Codi looks over a housing survey at Rimklong Pattana, where all residents face imminent eviction. (Photo by Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn)
Home improvement: Somchai Jinprayun’s community is considered a ‘model’ for canal dwellers. (Photo by Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn)
Making a move: Piyamas Ruangkij has taken charge of relocating Rimklong Pattana residents. (Photo by Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn)
