PATTAYA – Long-delayed redevelopment of the South Pattaya Canal zone will begin in April now that years of property encroachment issues are almost resolved.
Pattaya Engineering Department chief Sompope Wandee said March 14 that the 58-million-baht project to dredge, widen and beautify the canal area will take about two months to complete. Once done, the waterway will look natural and attractive and capable of becoming its own tourist attraction, he said.
Plans to redevelop the flood-control waaterway were first laid in 2015, but were shelved due to the large number of structures illegally built around or on top of the canal. Not only was it a legal issue of encroachment on public land, it severely hampered the ability of storm runoff to reach the sea, contributing to Pattaya’s serious flooding problem.
Encroachment of the canal has been an issue for 20 years, Sompope said, with hundreds of home and business owners grabbing the public land for their own.
The canal was designed to handle 65,000 cu. meters of water a day, but capacity was trimmed substantially by bridges, porches and entire buildings constructed over it during the past 20 years.
Long-term plans call for the canal to be expanded to handle up to 150,000 cu. meters of water per day by 2020.
Dozens of demolition orders, legal threats and lawsuits were issued against intransigent property owners since 2009, when Pattaya first got serious about clearing the obstructions. But no real progress was made until the military got involved following Pattaya’s change to local government in 2015.
Sompope said 80 percent of all obstructions are now gone with only one major holdout – an Italian restaurant – remaining. He predicted the restaurant’s obstruction would be removed by April and 100 percent of the land cleared by June.
