Opening survey on the Kok begins

Opening survey on the Kok begins

Environment

Preliminary examination of the headwaters of the Kok river has started as a result of a recent MoU signed between Bangkok and Rangoon to dam up the Kok and the Maesai, both of which originate in Burma's Shan State, said a reliable source from Monghsat, opposite Chiangmai's Mae Ai district. 

On 4 March, a party from Monghsat-based Infantry Battalion 49, led by Captain Win Maung, Commander of Company 3, accompanied by 18-elders from the town went up to the Hpala mountains where the Kok that drains into the Mekong after flowing through Thailand's Chiangmai and Chiangrai provinces is formed. The party was joined by a patrol from Mongpiang-based IB 43 on the way. 

"A lot of questions were asked and a lot of photographs were taken at Ho Namkok (the Kok's head) and later at the waterfall which is 10-wa (wa = 2 meters) high," said the source from Monghsat. 

However, he was not sure whether a similar tour was being taken at the headwaters of the Maesai at the Loi Zarng Mountains in the same township. 

The survey was the upshot of the memorandum signed between former minister for National Resources and Environment, Praphat Panyachartrat, and Burma's Minister of Agriculture Maj-Gen Nyunt Tin on 24 February to conduct a one-year feasibility study before damming them up to create reservoirs that will feed farmlands in both countries. According to Bangkok Post, the study may also include a plan to build hydro-electric dams. 

Praphat claimed there would be little impact on the environment as the proposed dams would be sited in "degraded forests".