The only one Left; Chai Supan, a Chiang Saen fisher, commented that, “There used to be 7-8 fishers in his group who had been fishing around the beaches of Chiang Saen, but since the big commercial ships(around 80-100DWT) have been able to navigate from China through to Chiang Saen, the fishers’ boats was threatened by big waves from the ships, so they have to involuntarily stop fishing”..… Up until now, there is only Chai who still riskily fishs in the areas.

 The river of Lives; Mekong is the river of lives as people along the river have been using it for consumption especially as water supply for generations ( as long as the river and human exist). As can be seen in the pictures; monks, novices, children and people would come to bath, do washing and take some water for water supply, along the riverside in the evening. This livelihood will be gone with the big ships cruising years round that will impact on water pollution and big waves caused by big vessel navigation.

Riverbank vegetable garden; is very important for villagers along the river especially those living by the river as the riverside is a common area --particularly customary lands, fertiled and nurished with natural fertilizer from the Mekong sediment.   A family will use around 1-2 Rai of land, by customary land rights, to do vegetable and herb farming either for family consumption or for sale in local markets.   The effects on riverside vegetation will mostly come from following up activities especially local development projects.   As experienced by Kraisorn --a villager from Sob Som-Chiang khong, who use a Rai of riverside to do river bank garden--  this small area is very significant for their food security and it can even yield 200-300 Baht per day.  But by the end of this year, they will have to stop farming as were told by the government that the area will be converted to an embankment.