Khlong Rangsit

Outline map of Khlong Rangsit and the surrounding area, Pathum Thani Province

View of the Rangsit Canal

Khlong Rangsit (in Thai : คลอง รังสิต ) is a canal ( Khlong ) in the eastern part of the Chao Phraya plain in central Thailand . The full name of the channel is Khlong Rangsit Prayunsak ( คลองรังสิต ประยูรศักดิ์ ).

history

Khlong Rangsit was launched in 1890 by King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) as the first extensive irrigation project in Siam , in order to use previously fallow land in the outer Chao Phraya basin for rice cultivation. Because the complexity of the project required Western technology and machinery, the government set up a Thai-Italian joint venture , the Siam Land, Canals, and Irrigation Company (SLCIC). The company was granted a de facto monopoly over the construction of canals and new farmland throughout the kingdom for the next 25 years. The company had to cover the construction costs from its own resources, but in return it was granted the right to either resell the land to which the project related or to use it for agricultural purposes. Prince Sai Sanitvongse has been named president of the project.

The basic design was simple. A main channel twelve meters wide and three meters deep, the Khlong Rangsit, was dug in a west-east direction. He started at the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya in the municipality ( tambon ) Ban Mai of the district ( Amphoe ) Khlong Luang in the province ( Changwat ) Pathum Thani . It continues in an easterly direction through the area historically called Thung Luang to the Amphoe Ongkharak in the Nakhon Nayok province , where after 54.8 kilometers it emptied into a series of canals that continued to the Nakhon Nayok River. To the north and south of the Rangsit Canal, 42 side canals were dug at right angles. They were each six to ten meters wide and 1.5 to 2.5 meters deep. The 13 longest secondary canals led 2.5 kilometers from the Khlong Rangsit to the north, where they flowed into a parallel canal, the Khlong Raphiphat.

A second, similar set of canals ran south from the Khong Rangsit to the Khlong Hok Wa, which also ran parallel to the Khlong Rangsit twelve kilometers south. Khlong Hok Wa was extended to the south by further canals and east-west connecting canals were created between some canals running in north-south direction.

The engineers used mechanical shovels mounted on rail vehicles or on barges. Chinese wage laborers were hired in difficult environments, so that in 1900 around 80,000 hectares had been worked. At the end of the contract period, 200,000 to 240,000 hectares of new arable land could be obtained.

From 1900 the government's concerns about this project increased. There was concern that the country's agricultural development was a private company. By controlling the water in the entire area through sluice gates, the company refused water to the farmers who tilled their fields directly to the south. But the greatest annoyance arose from the fact that the government was unable to influence the quality of the buildings. Many canals were too narrow for their depth and were slowly silting up; the SLCIC refused to dredge these canals again. After only 835 kilometers of the system were completed, the SLCIC was informed that the commission agreement had been revoked and the government was looking for a new solution that would allow it to exercise greater control.

In June 1902 the Dutch hydraulic engineer Homan van der Heide was hired by the newly founded Canal Department to deal with the irrigation problem. His suggestion to dam the Chao Phraya with the so-called Chai-Nat-Dam was rejected as too costly. A modification of van der Heide's plan to dam the Mae Nam Pa Sak ( Pa-Sak River ) in order to achieve a better flow through the Rangsit canals was again rejected as too expensive. When in 1909 crop failures and floods increased, van der Heide was dismissed - allegedly due to incompetence. (The Chai-Nat dam was built in 1957 as part of the Greater Chao Phraya Project based on van der Heide's plans.)

In 1915, British engineer Thomas Ward came up with another plan to build a dam in the Pa-Sak River that would benefit the Rangsit area. This dam, initially called “Pa-Sak Dam”, later called “Rama VII Dam”, was not completed until 1924 after restrictions due to the war.

swell

Steve Van Beek: The Chao Phya, River in Transition . Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur 1995, ISBN 967-65-3069-7

Khlong Rangsit

history

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further reading