Ban Limthong takes advantage of Raknam; 'With this program I feel that my life is back'

Mother Nature has long been unkind to the residents of Ban Limthong, a farming village in Buri Ram in the northeast. Rice is the main source of livelihood, but the conditions are unfavorable.

The land is parched and withered for most of the year. The farmers depend on the rainy season for their one rice crop per year and to make matters worse, the rainfall has been disappointing lately.

Many villagers in Thailand face the same problems; this has come to an end for the villagers of Ban Limthong. They take advantage of Raknam (Love Water), a Coca-Cola water management project under her Corporate Social Responsibility Programme. Because the company itself uses large amounts of water, it has started a campaign to reduce its impact on the environment.

Launched in 2007, the project (and other CSR programs) aims to return the same amount of water to village communities as it uses globally by 2020.

core of it Raknam project is the construction of so-called camem ling (monkey cheeks), an idea launched by the king in 1995 when Bangkok was flooded. The king advised the city council to dig gigantic ponds to drain the water. Since then camem ling a concept elsewhere in the country as a cheap and environmentally friendly method of combating floods and droughts.

Simply put, water is stored in the 'monkey cheeks' during the rainy season, and that water can be used to irrigate the land during the dry season. But Raknam is more than water storage. Apart from fees for the villagers to dig ponds, the campaign also provides advice. For example, the company collaborates with organizations such as the Hydro and Agro Informatics Institute. This provides technical assistance, for example in determining the best place for the ponds.

Once nothing more than a wasteland, Ban Limthong is now one of 84 villages in the country selected by the government as a prime example of sustainable water management. The income of the villagers has increased and they can now grow different crops, improving the ecological diversity of the area.

'With this program I feel that my life is back', says one of the farmers. 'I feel happy when I see the water filling our canal. Our village can harvest more rice. It makes me proud to be able to help develop our community. I no longer have to go to the big city after the rice harvest to look for a job. I can stay home now.'

(Source: Bangkok Post, July 2, 2013)