"Orchid growers allowed their land to be flooded to protect Bangkok, but still await any form of relief
It has been almost a month... Suchart Dokrak... orchid farmer, whose life was turned upside down overnight on October 26. ... on Friday. Three metres below the surface were some 205,000 orchid plants he and his wife Rapeeporn had... planted two years ago. From being one of the province's high-profile orchid growers who generated income of more than Bt10,000 a day by exporting their blooms to Italy and India, Suchart and Rapeeporn now make about Bt50-Bt60 daily by fishing in the three-metre-deep pond where a month ago their orchids flourished. The turning point of their life was late on the morning of October 26. "... a huge volume of water was flooding through a broken earth dam. By late afternoon it had become like this," Rapeeporn recalled... Yesterday Suchart and about other 100 orchid growers who were affected by the flooding gathered at the office of the Thai Orchid Garden Enterprise Association in Nakhon Pathom. Payong Kong-udomsup, president of the association... had called the meeting... Information was being collected and will be reported to Agriculture Minister... and... director-general of the Irrigation Department. "We hope the details we collect here today will be used to evaluate compensation for flood-affected people," said Payong. Payong said at least 30 big farms in Suphan Buri, Nakhon Pathom, Ayutthaya and Nonthaburi had been completely inundated. Though the majority of his members were able to save their farms, many had to spend more than Bt1 million to do so, he added. Suchart... was informed on October 15 by local Irrigation Department authorities that all farm areas, including his 50 rai, were part of areas that had been designated for water retention to protect Bangkok from being flooded by the huge volume of water rushing in from the North. Before being hit by the water, irrigation officials went to his farm to take photographs, saying the pictures would be used later when calculating his compensation. Suchart decided to assign only 40 rai, where there was a fish pond and orchards, as areas to be submerged. The remaining 10 rai was an orchid farm, an area he had to protect. Almost Bt100,000 was then spent on building a three-metre-high earth dam to encircle the 10-rai orchid farm, in the hope that it would be strong enough... "We didn't know how high we should make the dam because the irrigation authorities failed to tell us the volume of water they estimated would be diverted to our land," said Rapeeporn. ... he said... "... I have no way to generate income to repay the Bt3.5-million loan I took out with the SME Bank in 2003 to invest in the farm." Suchart said he would ... ask the bank for a three-year debt moratorium. ... Suchart said he wished the Bangkok governor and the head of the Irrigation Department would show more concern for people like him, who had sacrificed their entire fortune to protect the metropolis. At least, he said, they could help him by asking the SME Bank to accept his request for a debt moratorium. He said that since the local irrigation authorities told him about their plan to discharge water onto his land, he had never seen anyone from the department again" article URL : http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2006/11/26/headlines/headlines_30019977.php ************ Regards. VB _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
