BMA denies letting the renovated Klong Ong Ang rot through lack of attention

The BMA, which is now headed by Governor Chadchart Sittipunt, argued that it was in process of seeking identities of the ancient canals for local communities to highlight and manage on their own for sustainable development instead of holding flash events that had no sustainability.

The Ong Ang is a historic canal located between Bangkok's Chinatown and Phahurat, the Indian Quarter.

The canal was built in the 1780s by King Rama I, shortly after Bangkok became the capital of Thailand. In its early days, it was a busy waterway used for trade and transportation. The name "Ong Ang" actually translates to "pottery canal" because it was once a major centre for pottery trading.

It became one of Bangkok’s polluted canals until the Prayut Chan-o-cha government turned it into a popular Ong Ang Walking Street when the BMA was governed by appointed governor Asawin Kwanmung. Asawin’s successor, Chadchart, did not continue the walking street project.

Criticisms over the “abandoned Klong Ong Ang project", came up after a Facebook page, called "Footpath of Thailand", showed a photo of two rows of cars parked along the canal.

The page wondered why vehicles were allowed to park on the canal’s bank behind Mirama hotel, and some tiles there had already been damaged.

Many Bangkokians commented in the post, criticising Chadchart and the current BMA for letting the renovated canal stagnate because it was the work of the previous administration.

The canal was dug for the first time to link Bang Lampu Canal to Chao Phraya.

In the old days, the canal featured Saphan Hun or a “bridge with a roof” that was built after the Rialto Bridge of Venice, Italy, with chambers for selling goods. The original Saphan Hun was later demolished and replaced with a normal concrete bridge in 1962.

In 1982, the BMA allowed vendors to rent space over the canal so that the city administration could relocate vendors from the Klong Thom area.

The vendors built a steel platform spanning the canal, making the area a market for video games and electronic gadgets and the area was later called Saphan Lek or steel bridge.

In 2000, the Ratankosin Island conservation and development committee resolved to have the BMA order the eviction of 500 stalls over Klong Ong Ang – 375 stalls in Phra Nakhon district and 125 others in Samphanthawong district.

The committee reasoned that the stalls had encroached on the canal, leading to its pollution and blocking of the waterway. But the BMA did nothing at that time.

In 2015 a year after the coup, the government of coup leader General Prayut, and Asawin, demolished all the stalls and the steel platform over the canal.

The government allocated 325 million baht to renovate and beautify the two banks of Klong Ong Ang over a 1.5-kilometre distance. Among other things, new sewerage pipes were installed to prevent houses and buildings along the canal from discharging wastewater into the canal. The banks were beautified with the planting of trees. The government also renovated five bridges along the canal.

After the renovation, the Ong Ang Canal won the 2020 Asian Townscape Awards from the United Nations Human Settlements Programme.

Following the criticism, BMA deputy governor Sanon Wangsrangboon denied that the BMA had ignored the Ong Ang canal area.

Sanon explained that the section of the canal’s bank, where cars were parked, was still under construction and renovation and the contractor had not handed it over to the BMA.

He said the construction project was aimed at extending the Ong Ang walkway to link Saphan Hun with Sam Yod, Pratu Phi and Bang Lampu area so that tourists could walk along the canal with ease.

Sanon said the BMA had not organised tourism promotion events on Ong Ang Canal recently because such events were not sustainable and the BMA was urging local communities to join hands to find and promote their own identities for sustainability.

For example, he said communities at the Saphan Hun had joined forces to open Indian restaurants and turned it into a Little India to draw tourists.

Meanwhile, Ekwaranyu Amrapal, the assistant secretary to the BMA governor, also denied allegations that the city administration had allowed degradation of the Ong Area as a popular landmark.

He said the Phra Nakhon district office had been cooperating with local communities to plan tourism promotion in three steps.

As a short-term measure, the BMA would cooperate with the communities in the Saphan Lek area to hold activities to promote the identities of the communities within two months.

As middle-term measures, the BMA would evaluate the success of the short-term project and would consult with local communities to launch weekend events. Leaders of the communities would be in charge of the events with the BMA acting as their adviser, Ekwaranyu sid.

In the long term – about eight months – the BMA would allow the leaders of the communities to organise the events on their own, he added.

Ekwaranyu said the BMA had also instructed the contractor on the canal’s bank to prevent vehicles from being parked there.

He added that the BMA had investigated and detected the spots where wastewater was leaking into the canal. He said the pipes would be fixed so that the household wastewater would be channelled to the city’s wastewater treatment system.