press release Chevron Supports “Pa Sak Watershed Rehabilitation Project” Phase 2

Pairoj Kaweeyanun (right), president of Chevron Thailand Exploration and Production, Ltd., recently gave a budget of 12,940,000 baht to sponsor “Pa Sak Watershed Rehabilitation Project” Phase 2, which was received by Dr. Wiwat Salayakamthorn (left), president of the Sufficiency Economy Institute and the Agri-Nature Foundation. This sponsorship aims to build on successful water management and natural resource rehabilitation in the area of the Pa Sak River Basin, as well as driving human development using His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s sufficiency economy philosophy to solve the country’s water management problems sustainably.

 

Phase two of Pa Sak Watershed Rehabilitation Project is a cooperation between Chevron Thailand Exploration and Production, Ltd., the Sufficiency Economy Institute, and the Agri-Nature Foundation, with a focus on going into the field to teach communities in the Pa Sak River Basin how to build on the success of phase one of Pa Sak Watershed Rehabilitation Project. Phase one was carried out between 2014 and 2016 with a sponsorship of 10,000,000 baht from Chevron Thailand, with 48 concrete success models built in Saraburi, Lopburi, and Phetchabun provinces. Among these, three learning centers were opened to offer trainings, and more than 60,000 people have since attended water management trainings. The project aims to educate based on the application of the sufficiency economy philosophy and new farming techniques based on the mound, reservoir, and paddy model, a soil, water, and forest management technique, combined with local wisdom. Above all else, the project is helping to build cooperation between five sectors: the government sector, private sector, academic sector, civil society sector, and the media, all cooperating to drive learning of the King’s philosophy and its practical applications.

 

Phase two of Pa Sak Watershed Rehabilitation Project began last May and is expected to be completed in 2019. Running for a total of two years, and has involved network and expert training programs, educational field trips in the form of offering mutual assistance, and building educational facilities for Pu Tale Maha Vitchalia School, which is a natural agriculture and sufficiency economy learning center for young people all to support an increased number of students and develop a resource of educational models based on the King’s philosophy. The project has the goal of holding trainings for more than 300 people in the Pa Sak River Basin, with the expectation of being able to create no less than 30 more models of success, and to develop another nine experts to lead further communication of ideas.

 

In this way, Pa Sak Watershed Rehabilitation Project is helping in expanding “The Power of Human Energy: A Journey Inspired by the King", which was a campaign to raise awareness among the general population about participating in the restoration of the Pa Sak River Basin based on the King’s philosophy and local wisdom in order to sustainably stop flooding and drought and to be a model for water management that can be replicated in other watersheds throughout the country, a project which is now in its fifth year. Both projects have the same target area for restoration which is the the Pa Sak River Basin, as it is a watershed that is difficult to manage: its many steep slopes result in water gushing down from the mountaintops during the rainy season to quickly flood the basin below, while the hot season presents the problem of water scarcity for agriculture. It is also a watershed that His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej was most concerned about.