Residents in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai, have complained to district officials about the skyrocketing cost of food and labor as they try to dig themselves out of sand and mud from flooding.
Workers charge 600 -800 baht or 5,000-10,000 baht per team to remove mud and sand from people’s homes.
Houses with only women and elderly people who could not afford to hire people to help dig up the sand called for the government to help dig them out, which has proven difficult.
More than 1,000 households were in the 3 communities, making it impossible for them to help every household.
On some roads and alleys, there were not enough tractors to help, so villagers pooled their money to hire tractors to plow and scoop up the mud. They say the tractor owners were charging too much money.
Many houses had women and children who could not open their front doors because the mud and sand were over 2 meters high, and they had no money to hire people to dig them out.
It has been impossible for them to go to the shelters to receive food as the roads are still full of mud. Residents are also complaining that people who pretend to be victims are going to receive 10-20 food boxes at a time. By the time it was their turn, the food was all gone.
Meanwhile, tap water could not be supplied because the water pumps were full of mud, and the water pipes were broken in sections. Soldiers and villagers worked together for many days to dig up and repair the pipes after the water receded, but the work was still unfinished.
The president of the Mae Sai Chamber of Commerce estimated the economic damage in Mae Sai District alone to be no less than 3 billion baht. If assessing the impact on border trade, it should be no less than 10 billion baht because Tachilek, Myanmar, was also severely damaged.
This does not include economic rehabilitation, where small shops must repeatedly start their businesses.
The damage is expected to be at least 50 million baht, including shops in the Ta Lo market that are still full of mud. The roads, which are still muddy, still need to be salvaged, especially in the villages along the Sai River, where mud was more than 2 meters high.
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Geoff Thomas is an award winning journalist known for his sharp insights and no-nonsense reporting style. Over the years he has worked for Reuters and the Canadian Press covering everything from political scandals to human interest stories. He brings a clear and direct approach to his work.
