The delay in the construction came after the crowd met with Cherng Talay Tambon Administration Organisation (OrBorTor) Chief MaAnn Samran and Thawee Homhuan, Chief of the Phuket Provincial office of the Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning, at Surin Beach this morning.
“Some people don’t understand clearly what is happening, so I showed a map and plans to them.” Mr Thawee explained to The Phuket News.
“However, they were not protesting,” he stressed. “Mr MaAnn told them to come this morning after I received complaints from villagers yesterday (Nov 14) about the construction, which had been underway for only one day,” he said.
“Some of their complaints included that the construction ruins the good view at the beach,” he added.
“We will take about one week to set up a meeting to explain it and make sure everyone understands clearly that we are building a seawall and its purpose,” he said.
“Then we will construct the seawall, which will be 800 meters long in total. But we will do it 100 meters at a time,” he added.
“This way the construction will not bother tourists too much, until the whole project is finished. More details about the construction will be explained later,” he said.
“The seawall project is to protect the beach from further erosion. I want people to understand the purpose of it, so it is better to make an appointment for a clearer explanation within the next week,” Mr Thawee added.
However, after the crowd had dispersed workers fired up a backhoe and flattened the huge furrows that had been ploughed into the beach yesterday.
Mr MaAnn yesterday defended the seawall construction on Surin Beach following several complaints from local residents sent directly to The Phuket News.
“I have been receiving a large number of complaints from locals over the years asking why I have not done something about the beach at Surin eroding and the sand being dragged away.
“So I decided it was time to renovate the wave barrier. Due to the monsoon season, waves have dragged sand from the beach, causing several problems,” he said. (See story here.)
Additional reporting by Tanyaluk Sakoot