DAY IV IN MAE CHAN

An announcement to those who are reading this blog post: my name is Alex Atkinson and this is my first blog post for BLUElab, the human centered design organization that now has a subteam conducting research in the Mae Chan district of Northern Thailand. This is my second trip to Thailand. Last year it was for study abroad, and this year it is to collect information that will help us and the people that live here address environmental issues in the region. Now that you know this about me and what I am doing I will start the story of our day, Thursday. Here I am shown below:

Hello, it’s me.

This was our fourth day (day 4) in Mae Chan. We started off the day by meeting in the parking lot of our hotel at 8:00 in the morning and then not going to the place for breakfast we went to the day before, but rather a new place that was different from the previous place in that it didn’t have coffee bar. For breakfast I got pad fak tooooong (several o’s are needed because in the last word the vowel is long, rather than short, and in Thai the long and short vowels can change the meaning of the word), which is a boiled pumpkin dish that is very tasty. It is shown in the figure below.

Prepared food in Thailand is sometimes 10 times less expensive that in the United States

Immediately after breakfast, we went to the municipal office to meet with a man name Lrong Daeng, and a woman named Pii Noi who are the vice municipality minister and municipality minister, respectively, of the municipality of Mae Chan. We expected to only meet Lrong Daeng, but were pleasantly surprised to meet Pii Noi as well. We asked them a lot of questions about the power they have to construct and operate water infrastructure. We learned a lot about geography of the region the drainage systems in the city, and learned a lot of specifics about how exactly the region floods and what they do to avoid it.

Basically, during heavy rains there is a huge amount of runoff that causes the Mae Chan River to become overwhelmed. This causes a small channel that diverges from the Mae Chan river to also be overwhelmed. Usually wastewater from people’s sinks and showers (toilet water is separate), and stormwater flow along various drains and sewers into this channel, where is it carried away from the city to join the Mae Chan river once again further downstream. However, in heavy rains, the water level in the river and the channel gets so high that it flows backwards through the sewer system into the city, sometimes causing severe floods. These kinds of floods happen at least once a year and have water levels as high as 5ft in some areas of the city. Our job here is to mitigate at least one of the factors contributing to the flood. Below is a picture or Lrong Daeng and Pii Noi at their office.

After conducting our interviews in the municipal office, Pii Noi took us out to lunch at a Northern Thai restaurant. I got to try a bunch of foods that I had never eaten before. The cooking was described as “very local cooking.” The most unique food I tried there was a pig intestine. It was tough and chewy and bit like a piece of jerky but with more of a rubbery quality. Below is a picture of the food there.

A photo of our lovely meal

After we finished our lunch we went to the fire station and met up with the chief disaster prevention guy we met up with two days earlier, Mr. Nakhon. He showed us the tools he designed to help with cleaning clogged drains and sewers in the city. He had several custom-designed nozzles that operate with pressurized water from a fire engine hose. The nozzle reverses the flow of water to propel the hose down the drain, then the hose is manually pulled backwards, shooting all of the trash and mud towards the opening to the surface where it can be more easily removed. Clogged sewers are another factor that contributes to flooding within the city. Below is a picture of the nozzle and a demonstration of how it works if you follow the link to our Facebook page.

A close up of the nozzle Mr. Nakhon designed.

The nozzle in action. While operating it would be underground inside a sewage line.

After this, we went on a long tour through the city of Mae Chan along with the channel the flows through the city. We started where the channel enters the city and examined a large grate that is used to filter garbage and other debris. Then we followed the channel through the city and looked at several points underground that link the local sewers to the channel. These points can only be opened or closed once a year, and are often closed to prevent backflow in case of a flood. After that, we walked to a variably adjustable weir that opens when water needs to drain into the channel but closes to prevent flooding. Here it becomes evident that flooding is a big deal in the community. One of the highest flood levels was painted onto the walls of the alley that leads to the weir. Throughout the trip, we have noticed that the waterline is still visible on many walls in the city and that several shop owners have recorded various waterlines and the dates of their floods. Shown below is the manual weir that controls the water level and me standing next to one of the flood lines.

Here is the weir. The controls have to be high enough to keep it from being submerged during a flood. Beyond the controls you can see the channel is filled with vegetation, which hinders draining.

Here is the waterline. I am 5′ 8″ (1.73m)

After seeing the weir, our official business ended for the day. We finished the day by getting dinner together and sharing personal information in order to get to know each other better and build a cohesive team bond. The last thing we did was get mango sticky rice. Mango sticky rice is a delicious Thai dessert that consists of rice mixed with condensed milk topped with freshly cut mango. According to Dr. Paskorn this is the best Mango sticky rice that he has ever had. It was delicious.

Beautiful Thai mangoes await consumption