Following an over three-month water shortage in Paklok, about 20 protesters from Prompan Village voiced their frustrations over the lack of response from the Phuket Provincial Waterworks Authority (PWA).
"It's been more than three months, since the middle of October, that the water stopped. Initially, when I called the office, they said there was a pipe leak and they would fix it but after few days, the water stopped again. Then they told us, 'the water supply is not enough',"said Mr Pakornpat Petchsut, a board member of the 280-household Prompan Village.
Mr Pakornpat explained that the PWA then dodged complaints by villagers whenever they called and authority members were never available. Today (January 22), the villagers also handed a formal complaint letter to the Damrongtham center to push the Phuket Office of Waterworks Authority to solve their problem.
Protest signs carried messages aimed at the Director of the PWA, Pisak Chonlayuth, who later showed up to appease the villagers by announcing that trucks will be giving away water at Propman Village everyday at 5pm beginnning today (January 22).
Director Pisak went on to announce a plan to boost water supply in Phuket because, as he explains: "It is not only at Prompan village or in Paklok but everywhere in Phuket has low capacity of water supply."
"This is why we have a project to increase capacity from the main tank, going from supplying 500 - 650 cubic metres per day to 800 cubic meters per day and there is another project to build another tank that supplies another 500 cubic meters so, there will be a total of 1,300 cubic meters per day around the island."
In addition, a B400 million project is in place to increase capacity of existing pipelines around Phuket with B81 million dedicated specifically to enhance water supply in the Bang Jo area. The plan is expected to be finished by August.
Director Pisak went on to say that the PWA has made an agreement with a private company to use water from a tin mine lake in Cherngtalay for the Paklok area. The water will initially be used to supply Kamala with water within the next two months before being used for Paklok right after.
The area surrounding Phuket Town has seen several water shortages the last few months, mostly due to construction of the underpass on Chaofa West Rd. Since October, villagers saw support from Prompan Village Project Developer Prapa Setthapongsak, who said he bought water for each house.
"I keep buying water to give away to people in the village to help in a meanwhile. Yesterday, I have just bought water for four trucks costs B4,000 to solve the problem temporarily," said the developer.
"At the beginning, when I filed the village plan for environmental approval, the water authority office came to build the pipeline and guaranteed that water supply was enough. When there is a water shortage, we cannot touch anything and have to contact the office to solve the problem."