Chiang Mai is a relatively well-managed city. Just about everywhere else I have lived (In Thailand) is prone to flooding. Sometimes the cities have been so poorly planned that flooding is simply a part of life and it is something that the home and business owners anticipate during certain times of year. This is very true in a major city in the south called Hat Yai, where the downtown area floods like clockwork and the residents aren't even surprised or even all that bothered when it happens..
normally this would be flowing but has sat still for about a month while the work is being performed
Anyway, the city of Chiang Mai is undergoing preparations for the upcoming rainy season and this includes a lot of maintenance on the city's extensive canal system that eventually results in the entire area's rainwater being diverted to an absolutely massive canal in the south of the city. One of the smaller canals is in my neighborhood and they have been doing work on large portions of it for quite some time now.
when your dam doesn't work properly just insert some plastic bags and pieces of wood... I was stunned that this actually worked
Many of the parts of my portion of the canal have these areas where portions of the canal can be blocked and the water-flow diverted to a different path - which was a wonderful, forward-thinking design, but then i found out that the alternate route in my neighborhood doesn't work, so they simply blocked off the entire thing and this results in our water being a bit on the nasty side.
I was reminded about a Koi (Carp) pond that was on the property of a villa operation that I managed several years back. This Koi pond was foolishly built in direct sunlight because the owner heard that UV light kills algae and this way, in direct sunlight, he wouldn't have to worry about that. I shook my head in disbelief then politely explained that algae is a plant and how chlorophyll works and that UV filters that he read about are not at all similar to sunlight and how we are going to have to build some sort of shade mechanism or we will roast our Koi to death and actually end up having a moss-covered frog pond. He didn't believe me and that is precisely what we ended up with. He eventually ended up planting a big tree next to the pond and claimed it was because of unrelated reasons. Pride is a funny thing... huh?
Anyway, our canals at the moment are giant algae pits and I will be excited once the city finishes this work because while it doesn't cause any problems for me and the work they are doing is definitely necessary, it is ugly, and this is something I could do without.
