Villagers in Kalayawattana district’s Jaem Luang village have decided to stop waiting for the government and have instead begun to fix a 10km stretch of badly damaged road themselves.
Following numerous complaints and requests to the government for a 10km stretch of a road to be fixed, villagers came together to fix their own problem.
According to a local representative from the village, the road is very hard to navigate, especially during the rainy season when mudslides and deep holes in the road often measuring over a metre deep can sometimes send vehicles careening off the side of the road into a gully. At times it requires many supporting vehicles to travel together to keep pulling one another out of trouble, often taking hours to tackle a short stretch of the road.
This road is very important to the people of the village as it is the only route to their market in Mae Chaem where they sell their main produce, cabbages. There is also no health care facility in the village and the harsh road conditions are dangerous to those in need of urgent medical care.
However, only 800m have so far been temporarily fixed.
According to local sources, the village used to be in Mae Chaem District, but was recently reallocated. The 80km road from the village to Mae Chaem has not been cared for by the new district authorities.
Last month the village took matters to the media in an attempt to pressure authorities, but have yet to receive a response.
Villagers say that it can at times take up to ten hours to drive the 80km.
