For decades, Mae Kha Canal has been a problem multiple mayors have attempted to solve. (Read about the issue here: https://www.chiangmaicitylife.com/clg/our-city/city-issues/root-canal-treatment-fixing-mae-kha-canal/
Photographs have been circulating in social media of sections of the canal which appear to have been cleaned up, decluttered and even made attractive.
The municipality told CityNews that it had been working with villagers from the Ragang and Haiya communities, who are now planting and tending to vegetables and herbs by the canal.
Patra Prasertdee from the Engineering office of the municipality said that a 22 million baht get had been used in Phrase One of the Mae Kha cleanup project, which worked on 750 metres of the canal.
The project has worked with communities to turn homes’ backyards into river facing feints. A two metre walkway has also been built along the canal.
All of household wastewater, which used to be discharged into Mae Kha, are now routed to the Pa Daed waste disposal centre.
Phase One is 90% complete. The canal runs 11 kilometres through Chiang Mai city. A further 20 million baht is being set aside to develop another 4 kilometres over the coming two years.
The municipality says it hopes that people will take pride of their now canal-fronting properties, making the area look lovely and perhaps even turning im the old slums into a major tourist attraction similar to come famous canal destinations in Korea and Japan.
