PHUKET: One of Rawai's impressive green shoreline giants has slipped into the sea because of a bizarre Phuket property dispute, and other trees seem likely to follow.
The row of pines is one of the postcard icons of Phuket. But local authorities and residents, aghast at the danger to the trees and the shoreline, have been powerless to do anything.
While most shorefront land owners have been happy to see the local council defend the shorefront against erosion with a sea wall, one owner has declined to cooperate.
As a result, Rawai council has been powerless to shore up the area where the sea has broken through the wall. With one of the giants toppling last week, others are now endangered.
It's a predicament that breaks the hearts of Phuket conservationists.
Nothing has changed since July when Rawai mayor Aroon Soroj said: ''We cannot restore the sea wall along that section of the Rawai shorefront without the owner's permission. And that owner has not given us permission.
''The original sea wall was built about three years ago,'' Khun Aroon said, ''then about a year later, the owner of this section threatened to sue us for constructing the wall without his permission.''
The row of pines is one of the postcard icons of Phuket. But local authorities and residents, aghast at the danger to the trees and the shoreline, have been powerless to do anything.
While most shorefront land owners have been happy to see the local council defend the shorefront against erosion with a sea wall, one owner has declined to cooperate.
As a result, Rawai council has been powerless to shore up the area where the sea has broken through the wall. With one of the giants toppling last week, others are now endangered.
It's a predicament that breaks the hearts of Phuket conservationists.
Nothing has changed since July when Rawai mayor Aroon Soroj said: ''We cannot restore the sea wall along that section of the Rawai shorefront without the owner's permission. And that owner has not given us permission.
''The original sea wall was built about three years ago,'' Khun Aroon said, ''then about a year later, the owner of this section threatened to sue us for constructing the wall without his permission.''
Compulsory purchase order?
Actions affecting other land owners?
Posted by Anonymous on September 3, 2011 17:23