he Flood Management in Bangkok and Metropolitan Areas Project
(the Kaem Ling Project)
“…When I was five years old, we had monkeys and we gave them bananas. They would munch, munch, munch, and then kept the food in their monkey cheeks. It follows that this “Monkey Cheek Project” actually originated way back when I was five years old. Five years old, that is, 63 years ago. The monkeys of that time, the ancient monkeys, already had monkey cheeks. They munched and stored their food in their cheeks. When flood waters come down, and we have no “Monkey Cheek Project”, that flood would inundate all over the place, the same way it did this year, all over the central plains. We have to make a “Monkey Cheek” as a retention area to keep that water…” His Majesty's royal speech granted on December 4, 1995
The Kaem Ling Project (or Monkey Cheek Project) is the Royal Development Project that deals with solving flooding problems in Bangkok and metropolitan areas by excavating the canals along the coastal areas both in the west and the east of the Chao Phraya River to serve as big storage reservoirs or Kaem Ling (Monkey Cheek) and draining floodwaters away by natural means such as gravity flow or tidal flow. At present, the Kaem Ling Project has extended to cover other areas namely the Nong Yai Area Development Project (Nong Yai-Natural Kaem Ling), Chumphon Province and the Project to Relieve Food Problems in the Khlong U Ta Phao Basin, Hat Yai, Songkhla Province.