Feel the people’s power flow
Amid the jubilation, there was a brief moment of uneasiness. Last September, during a ceremony to award the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Equator Prize held at the Boon Rueang wetland forest in Chiang Rai province, participants noticed the ground was much drier than it used to be. The moderator even joked that had the “wetland forest” venue been as wet as before during the monsoon season, they would have been celebrating the occasion partly submerged.
As months went by, the matter became worrisome for Pimpun Wongchaiya, a Boon Rueang native. The wetland swamps fed by creeks from the nearby Doi Luang mountains and Ing River, a Mekong tributary in the Golden Triangle, had reached critically low levels, threatening the fish.
