Thursday, November 21, 2013

ITD agrees to pay compensation for submerged farmland

Submerged farmland seen next to a road built by the ITD company. (Photo-EMG)
DAWEI – Italian-Thai Development (ITD) has agreed to pay compensation for submerged paddy fields located in the project areas of the Dawei deep-sea port and Special Economic Zone, according to local.

Local farmers say the ITD company did not build the drain system very well, so the streams are blocked with debris and water is pouring into nearby paddy fields.

“ITD built the road access to the excavation area to get stones for paving the road across the farm land. The drainage system is not good and the paddy fields are submerged with water. The water level reaches about mid-thigh. We told the authorities and ITD about the situation, but they didn’t do anything,” said Soe Aung, a farmland owner from Ma Yin Kyi village who lost more than six acres of paddy field.

“Earlier this month, they agreed to pay compensation for more than 38 acres of farm land. They agreed to pay Ks 4,000 per rice basket for 45 baskets per acre. They need to repair the drainage system before next year. If not, the water will leak into the paddy fields again. If the drainage system is good, we won’t have that problem.”

On October 30, the Ministry of Social Welfare official responsible for Taninthayi Region, Win Aung, sent a letter to the chairperson of the Italian-Thai Development company about the damaged farmland and asked for compensation.