DAY 2 (ACT II) IN MAE CHAN: Meeting with District Officials!

BLUElab Thailand
May 9, 2017
3 min read

Alli and Tay here… Are you ready for our busiest and most climactic day of the trip? 🙂

Commonly, writers and animators at Pixar (or anyone embarking on a personal journey) say Act II is the most arduous part to develop and get through. Namely, after introducing a story’s character (“background” or “dreams” in home or typical setting), setting up the rising action (assignment of the “mission”), how do you keep people engaged while guiding and building up to a climax?

Though it was only day 2 of our trip in the Mae Chan, it certainly held that formidability because our team hit the ground running meeting with prominent roles. Our team was allocated today to talk to 3 crucial department heads: the head of the Mae Chan district, a coalition of hospital officials and public health officials and the disaster prevention and mitigation deputy officer. The interviews added significant depth and discussion to our project scope and understanding, building up to our new challenge and mission and further writing our story.

After talking to the Mae-Chan District Chief Officer Mr. Somsak, we gained a deeper knowledge and understanding of the problems that the village regularly faces. In our conversation, he outlined four major issues, which include the destruction of the forest, air pollution, flash floods, and droughts – all of which are interconnected. To tackle such tasks, Mr. Somsak came up with a 4-year plan. In order to restore the vegetation in the mountain as part of the first-year plan, small ponds along the stream at higher elevation were created to mitigate the severity of flash floods. Additionally, moisture would be restored back into the soil, which stimulates roots growth, thus preventing soil erosion. In the second pipes were installed by these small streams, which are then transported to a reservoir located within the hill tribes’ community. In the third and final the district chief implemented jobs that give villagers incentives to protect the forest. Instead of growing corn (used for animal feeds or creating ethanol), villages were encouraged to grow plants that are less detrimental to the environment such as banana trees, coffee plants, bamboo trees, and herb. These plants have multiple uses and can be used to supplement the locals’ diet. In the words of Mr. Somsak, his overall arching objective and main concern are the livelihood of the villagers in their lifestyle and security.

After going to lunch with the Head of District, our next interview was at Mae Chan hospital with about 4 health officials and nurses that shared a presentation covering air pollution background and data. From this, we learned about disease count and variable causes within the past 3 years, to name a few, giving us a statistical expansion to what we knew of air quality and treating health as a priority and measure. In addition to these facts, we discussed causes and confounding variables and previous BLUElab project focuses and successful fates. This encounter perhaps gave us our greatest glimpse into air quality’s effects.

Though exhausted after getting filled in on an updated schema of Mae Chan practices and environment, our last stop was interviewing the chief officer responsible for any disaster prevention and mitigation pertinent events. This could mean anything from fighting mountain wildfires to managing drainage systems during the year and his versatility and resilience were admirable. [Later, we would find that he has invented his own designs to assist with his responsibilities].

These interactions and diverse minds advanced our knowledge of Mae Chan’s systems and understanding of the responsibilities and needs different stakeholders have to better the general welfare of the district.