Thread: Chiang Rai sinkhole 'stable' after destroying 8 homes

Chiang Rai sinkhole 'stable' after destroying 8 homes

Chiang Rai sinkhole 'stable' after destroying 8 homes

By Varataya Chailangka,
Janjira Pongrai
The Nation
Published on October 5, 2010


The land subsidence in Chiang Rai's Mae Fah Luang district appeared to have stabilised yesterday after causing an estimated Bt50 million in property damage and alarming tourists.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti ordered the Mineral Resources Department to rush to the scene and inspect the damage.

The chief of the Doi Mae Salong Nok Tambon Administration Organisation said the sinkhole at Santi Khiri Village had not expanded from its dimensions of 85 centimetres deep and 300 metres long.

He said the organisation would have a meeting later in the day about the eight homes that were destroyed and about financial assistance for other victims. Officials might consider demolishing the buildings, as they were unliveable.

He said the news had affected tourism because hundreds of phone calls from tourists had flooded his office expressing safety concerns, but he tried to explain to them that this had only taken place in one small area under his jurisdiction and other areas were still safe to visit.

However, Somkiat Khantheerawong, chief of the provincial tourism industry council, said the Santi Khiri Village sinkhole did not affect tourism because it occurred in only one spot and did not spread to other areas. Tourists understood it was a natural phenomenon as groundwater had eroded soil layers underneath. Since the rain has slackened, it will not happen again, he said.

Doi Slong will be as popular during this high tourism season as always and rooms are 50 per cent booked, he said.

Adichat Surinkham, director of the Environmental Geology Office, said the province had evacuated 10 families as a safety precaution and the Mineral Resources Department would contact provincial public works officials to examine the 100-square-metre spot today for how waterlogged the soil still was.

It is unlikely the depression was caused by a recent magnitude 3 quake with its epicentre in Burma, he said. It likely resulted from the heavy rainfall, the overwhelming build-up of groundwater there and the steep mountain's natural risk of landslides or subsidence.

Doi Mae Slong used to be forestland but then the area was cleared and houses were built on the 30-plus-degree slope above a watershed, so heavy downpours could wash the ground away. What residents could do initially was divert the water away from the houses, he said.