As many as 843 households, located along or encroaching into the Sai River in a Mae Sai district township in Chiang Rai province, will have to be relocated to enable the building of a floodwall, to protect the bustling border trade outpost.
According to the National Water Resources Office, a 4km, 10m-wide road, which will also serve as a 3m-high floodwall, will be built after all the houses are dismantled.
Mae Sai district was hit by the worst flooding in several decades during September and October, which saw the township almost entirely covered in a sea of mud that took many weeks to remove.
There are two rivers in Mae Sai district, the Sai and Ruak, both of which flow through the township before emptying into the Mekong River.
In addition to the floodwall, the Sai and Ruak rivers will be dredged, to increase their capacities ahead of the monsoon season. The dredging will be undertaken by the army’s Corps of Engineers.
The dredging of the Sai River will focus on a 2.8km section in the urban area, where the channel is about 30 metres wide and 2.5 metres deep, and in the suburban area, where the channel is 50 metres wide and 2.5 metres deep.
The silt removed from the riverbed in the urban zone will be dumped at a location about three kilometres from the township and used to increase the height of the flood barrier.
Deputy Defence Minister Gen Natthaphong Nakphanit said that a strip of land, about 40m wide along the Sai River, is needed for the building of the floodwall, requiring the relocation of the households at a cost estimated at about one billion baht.
The Ministry of Interior will be responsible for negotiating with the house owners about their relocation.
