6.5.3 Off-campus water conservation support

Srinakharinwirot University (SWU) supports practical water conservation off campus. In 2025, the University supported local communities in Tak Province to conserve the headwater forests that supply their village water systems, and SWU students built a check dam and improved access to a mountain water supply with a highland community in Chiang Mai Province. All of these activities took place off campus, in local communities.

Supporting Community Watershed Forests and Mountain Water Supply Systems in Tak Province

Bodhivijjalaya College, the University's college in Tak Province on the Thai–Myanmar border, runs a continuing series of research projects funded by the national Fundamental Fund on community forests that protect the headwaters used by villages for their water supply: “Payment for Ecosystem Services of Community Forests for Sustainable Water Management” (fiscal year 2024), “Ecosystem Services of Community Forests for Sustainable Forest Management and a Low-Carbon Society in the Thai–Myanmar Border Area” (fiscal year 2025) and “Ecosystem Services of Community Forests and Water Security in the Thai–Myanmar Border Area” (fiscal year 2026).

Many communities in Tak Province conserve forest headwater and use the water from these forests to run their own gravity-fed mountain water supply systems. At the Ban Mae Kued Luang community forest (Mae Kasa Subdistrict, Mae Sot District), the community's conservation of its headwater forest supplies mountain tap water to six villages. In 2025, the research team measured stream flow from the community forests of Ban Mae Kued Luang and Ban Sora Tae (Phop Phra District) and returned the research findings to community leaders, so that the communities can use the data to manage their water systems and protect their forests as water sources.

The photographs below show Bodhivijjalaya College researchers measuring stream flow from the community forests of Ban Mae Kued Luang and Ban Sora Tae, followed by the return of the research findings to community leaders, under the fiscal year 2025 Fundamental Fund project.

Source: https://rankings.swu.ac.th/swu-sdgs/sdg-6/653

The work continues under the fiscal year 2026 project at Ban Huai Hin Fon (Mae Pa Subdistrict, Mae Sot District) and Ban Mai Pornsawan (Wang Chao District), where the team works with the community forest committees, monitors the quality and flow of the raw water used for the mountain water supply systems, and analyses tap water samples in the laboratory. By providing data on water flow and water quality and by valuing the water services of community forests, the projects support community leaders and committees in keeping their headwater forests intact, which secures the water supply of the villages that depend on them.

Student Volunteers Build a Check Dam in Mae Chaem, Chiang Mai Province

SWU students also do hands-on water conservation work with highland communities. On 15–21 January 2025, student volunteers held the fifth “Ruam Nam Jai Pai Mae Chaem” camp, part of the Student Potential Development Project on Volunteering for Communities, at the SWU Demonstration School, Somdet Ya Learning Community, in Mae Chaem District, Chiang Mai Province. Working with the school community, the students built a check dam that slows stream flow, keeps water in the catchment for longer and reduces soil erosion, and improved the access road to the community's mountain water supply. They also repaired other community facilities and visited Doi Inthanon National Park. The camp has now been held for five years.

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