Ban Keosenkham, Bolikhamxay, December 18, 2017This file photo from 2011 shows Keosenkham newly built in the hills at the eastern edge of the Nam Gnouang Reservoir.

Farmers in Keosenkham village, Bolikhamxay province, have taken delivery of new boat motors and hand tractors to help them work their fields. On December 15, staff from the Theun-Hinboun Power Company (THPC) handed to the villagers 141 boat motors and eight hand tractors worth a total of over 2.5 million Thai baht.

Located close to the Nam Gnouang Reservoir in Xaychamphone district, Ban Keosenkham is an upland village with little flat land, and its people mainly use hillside fields to grow rice and cash crops. According to Vansay Suanthephanay, Community Manager at THPC, getting to these fields can be difficult, especially in the wet season, so THPC supplied the new equipment as a practical support measure.

In other resettlement villages, Mr Vansay explained, the company has built roads and tracks to guarantee people access to their fields. However, in the hills around Keosenkham, such roads would be difficult to use and would likely wash away every wet season.

THPC built Keosenkham in 2010-11 for people from four villages along the Gnouang River, which was dammed as part of the Theun-Hinboun Expansion Project. Residents were originally expected to move to lowland villages in Khamkeuth district, but THPC was asked to build Keosenkham to help found the new district of Xaychamphone.

Mr Somsak Inkeomanivong, the head of Keosenkham village, said that discussions between households, district authorities and THPC had led to an agreement that the company would supply sturdy transport equipment to the farmers in place of roads, and that the villagers were pleased with this arrangement.

“We do a lot of fishing in the reservoir and also use boats to transport our goods to market”, said Mr Somsak, “so strong and reliable boat engines are very useful, while the tractors have many uses and will be shared between families at crucial times of the year, such as during the rice harvest”.

IMG 2124Hand tractors and boat engines arrive at Keosenkham ready for distribution to villagers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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