Residents clash with municipality over embankment to protect industry
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Police are now watching over the earthen embankment that has recently gone up to protect Prachin Buri's economic zone from floodwater.
The strict surveillance began when residents of a nearby housing estate deliberately damaged it late Sunday night in a bid to ensure that floodwater will not head their way,
The housing estate sits on the opposite side of the Sarit Yuttasilp Road in Prachin Buri’s Muang district.
“We have received reports that villagers damaged the embankment with hoes and spades,” Prachin Buri police chief Colonel Yingyos Intaburan said yesterday.
He said police were called to the spot to stop the villagers from damaging the embankment but initially they refused to listen.
The housing estate accommodates about 1,650 families. Residents are unhappy with the Muang Prachin Buri Municipality’s decision to build the embankment, believing the structure would divert floodwater to their area.
While Muang Prachin Buri Municipality’s zone has briefly flooded three times this year, the housing estate has remained dry. Residents suspect that the newly erected embankment might change the situation.
Many parts of Prachin Buri are now deep under water and fear and concerns is spreading.
People in the Muang Prachin Buri Municipality’s zone want the embankment to stay. The municipality’s deputy mayor Tossapon Pinijtanapark and Muang Prachin Buri district chief Somsak Itthivorakul rushed to talk to villagers from the nearby housing estate.
“The villagers have agreed to stop damaging the embankment in exchange for the municipality’s promise to not raise the level of embankment, to not fix the damage that has already been done to the structure, and to help form sandbag walls around the housing estate,” Yingyos said.
