Rong Kham Municipality has recently been awarded first prize amongst Thailand's small tetsban. Apparently it is a good place to live, the environment is good and well-conserved, and there is good co-operation amongst the members of the community. That's all very fine, and I am very happy for them. What bothers me is that Phana Municipality came third in this competition. The mayor will be going up to Bangkok to collect the award on Monday.
I had never been to Kalsin Province, although like many other people I had passed through it several times. So earlier this week I made a special trip there and the first stop in the Province was Rong Kham.
The little town is certainly very neat and tidy and is contained in a small box-like grid of roads like this one, set to one side of the main road through the amphur.
The roads are certainly kept clean and free of rubbish. The shops are almost all in quite old wooden houses like these first two on the left:
The wat gate and the main building of the wat were somewhat different from usual:
At one end of this little township is a quite extensive park area around a lake. This being Kalasin there are dinosaurs prominently displayed at the entrance:
As well as the dinosaurs, there are several monkey statues in the nearby Don Phu Ta forest, but I didn't see any real live monkeys. So that is something that Phana has over Rong Kham. In fact, from my point of view, Phana is very much the better place to live. But then I would say that. In fairness, the community of Rong Kham and its tetsaban had clearly made a great effort to provide a pleasant environment and they are no doubt rightfully proud of the national recognition they have just achieved.
PS my lens seems to have been very dusty (or fingerprinted) when I took these photos. The sky was overcast, but the dirty marks, I'm afraid, are down to me.)
Do I guess right that this award was done by the Department of Local Administration, the part of the Ministry of Interior responsible for the local administrative units? Tomorrow I will post a short article pointing to this post on my blog, as I write on the administrative subdivisions of Thailand.
Posted by: MaewNam | 03 March 2011 at 05:30 AM
MaewNam, that is a logical guess, but not the case. The Competition (for a Good Place to Live in a sustainable environment) is run by the Dept of Environment Quality Promotion under the Min of Natural Resources and Environment. The awarding committee also includes the Association of Thai Municipalities and The Thai Environment Foundation.
In the small tesaban section the winner was
Rong Kham, Kalsin
and the 1st and 2nd runners up were Tesaban Tambon Dansai, Loei and Tesaban Tambon Phana, Amnat Charoen.
(There are also awards for bigger tesaban.)
Winner will receive award from the King or his representative in July. Runners-up receive awards from Privy Councillor Parakorn Suwanarat at Rama Garden Hotel on 7th March.
Many thanks for the pointer.
Posted by: Lawrence | 03 March 2011 at 10:20 AM
Lawrence what a delightful sight Rong Kham is, not a piece of litter in sight and everything has a place and looks orderly. Singapore would be proud of the town. Well done to its residents.
Posted by: Martyn | 05 March 2011 at 03:33 AM
Martyn, you are right about Rong Kham being clean and tidy. But a lot of people find Singapore too perfect (I've never been there) and as a visitor I found it bland. But as a resident, I would be grateful for a clean,healthy place to live.
Posted by: Lawrence | 06 March 2011 at 10:34 AM
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