Rakaeng Bridge area of the Mae Kha Canal in Chiang Mai City, Thailand, as of November 2022. (Source: Chiang Mai local government website)

Social innovation efforts of the Chiang Mai City Municipality Government, in partnership with the private sector, civil society groups, and local communities, have transformed the Mae Kha Canal (Khlong Mae Kha) from a dirty open sewer to a booming tourist attraction.

Titled “Mae Kha Canal, the River of Life: Strengthen the Economy, Create a Sustainable Lifestyle” (translated from Thai), the collaborative rehabilitation project coordinated by the Chiang Mai local government has already earned recognition from Thailand’s Ministry of Digital Economy and Society – Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DE-DEPA), including receiving the Smart City Solutions Award 2023 – Good Level in the area of “Smart Environment” during the Thailand Smart City Expo 2023.

From intolerable to Instagrammable

For decades, the Mae Kha Canal had been an unwelcoming presence in Chiang Mai, one of Thailand’s top tourist destinations and the country’s seventh most populated town. The Canal overwhelmed the senses, with communities along the waterway saying that it smelled as bad as it looked. Its dark water was a mix of untreated wastewater and garbage from households and business establishments on both sides of its 11-kilometer stretch that passes through the city.

The Canal used to be an outer moat of the city center that helped drain floods and was a key source of water for residents. However, as Chiang Mai’s population and economy grew, the Canal was neglected. Unregulated, rapid urbanization without a proper wastewater management system caused the Canal to be clogged and filled with untreated wastewater.

Fast forward to 2024, searching the keyword or hashtag “คลองแม่ข่า” (Khlong Mae Kha) on Instagram shows more than 5,700 photos and videos of the Mae Kha Canal, specifically the portion where the Rakaeng Bridge is located. The once-avoided and forgotten Canal has now become a charming public space, likened to Japan’s Otaru Canal, where people can stroll along its walkways or stop by small community shops that sell food, drinks, and souvenirs,

Mae Kha Canal’s makeover from being a polluted open sewer to becoming the latest tourist attraction in Chiang Mai was a huge undertaking. The complete transformation required a joint effort of the public sector, private sector, the academe, civil society groups, and the communities living along the Canal, as the issues tied to the Canal went deeper than waste management and lack of waste infrastructure. Socioeconomic issues such as informal settlements and social mobility in communities along the Canal had to be addressed to ensure that the Canal’s transformation was holistic and sustainable.

This was where social innovation came into play.

Social innovation, as defined by the Stanford Graduate School of Business, is “the process of developing and deploying effective solutions to challenging and often systemic social and environmental issues in support of social progress,” in which solutions “often require the active collaboration of constituents across government, business, and the nonprofit world.”

Rakaeng Bridge of the Mae Kha Canal in Chiang Mai City, Thailand, during the Yi Peng Lantern Festival 2022. (Source: Chiang Mai local government website)

Rehabilitation

While there have been several efforts to rehabilitate the Canal over the past decade, the Chiang Mai local government has made it its goal in recent years to lead the coordination of these efforts that shared one goal: to restore the Canal’s cleanliness so it can improve the quality of life of residents living around it—the same importance the Canal used to have before it became polluted.

The local government started the rehabilitation by making improvements in its wastewater management system and the Canal’s landscape. On the local government’s website, the initial efforts towards improving the Canal’s infrastructure included a dredging project and the renovation of walkways in 2019. Between 2020 and 2021, some of the Canal’s floodgates were repaired and the construction of a wastewater collection system on both sides of the Canal began. This allowed wastewater from buildings along the Canal to be processed for further treatment instead of being openly discharged.

Throughout 2022, the city collaborated with various experts and organizations to continue the improvements and develop housing for low-income communities. The local government encouraged homeowners to have their houses facing the Canal, allowing them to set up walkway shops directly from their homes. Water released into the Canal was monitored. The sides of the Canal were covered in hollow bricks that could hold plants, allowing nearby residents to grow herbs, vegetables, and flowers. Lights and manhole covers with art were installed.

By the end of 2022, the first phase of the Canal’s rehabilitation—from Rakaeng Bridge to Pratu Kom—was completed. Slowly, the Canal’s water became clearer. With patches of greenery and small businesses sprouting along it, the area started to gain buzz and attracted visitors.

Community involvement

A key aspect of Mae Kha Canal’s successful rehabilitation is the involvement of communities living along it. In the local government’s press releases about the success of the first phase, they gave credit to the communities’ participation and maintained that the goal of the rehabilitation project was to improve their quality of life.

When landscape improvements were planned, houses and buildings along the Canal were first surveyed. The local government also held a meeting with representatives of the community, civil society groups, architects, and other partners to obtain stakeholder buy-in. The Mae Kha Canal Development Working Group was then formed, which included representatives of communities along the Canal. Communities were also consulted through forums that aimed to address housing issues along Mae Kha.

In constructing the wastewater collection system, the local government collaborated with residents, local public sector networks, government agencies, academics, and experts in various fields.

The Chiang Mai local government also held forums with residents, merchants, and tourists to gather suggestions from them on further improving the Canal, and sent out a questionnaire to ask about their satisfaction with the Mae Kha Canal development project. One public forum even incorporated a “hackathon” for the public to share their views on the development of the Canal.

A retro dance competition was held at the Mae Kha Canal in Chiang Mai City, Thailand in October 2023. (Source: Chiang Mai local government website)

Community-led management of the canal

While physical improvements were ongoing, the section of the Canal that had already been improved proceeded to the next step in sustaining the collaborative rehabilitation efforts: allowing communities along the Canal to lead its management and upkeep.

When the Canal’s tourism potential bloomed, so did the opportunity for residents to have a new source of income. Residents were able to set up shops catering to visitors in the area. The more the area became popular, the more patrons they could have.

Experiencing the benefits and co-benefits of having a clean and beautiful canal strengthened the sense of stewardship among residents. Keeping the Canal clean and participating in efforts to improve it were efforts that bore fruit for communities because these ensured tourist patronage, and therefore, their livelihood.

A Mae Kha Canal Area Care Committee was also formed to maintain cleanliness and order along the Canal; promote the Canal; and oversee the organization of activities and requests for use in the area.

The sewer becomes a stage

The Chiang Mai local government promotes the rehabilitated and renovated area of the Mae Kha Canal by making it a venue for community events, recreational activities, educational trips, and knowledge exchange on wastewater management practices—all efforts to boost tourism, support the small enterprises of residents, and invite visitors to help promote the Canal. The area even hosted the city-wide Yi Peng Lantern Festival in 2022.

While sections of the Canal are still works in progress, the Chiang Mai local government has already realized how important social innovation is in addressing such a layered issue. Social innovation’s participatory and holistic approach that goes beyond the surface level and addresses root issues has proven to be effective in Mae Kha Canal’s case.

At first, the Mae Kha Canal was a cautionary tale of how rapid urban development without a sustainability approach can lead to the degradation of urban environments. Through cross-sectoral collaboration and social innovation, the Canal has been revitalized to support the natural and human ecosystems around it. The communities of Mae Kha, in turn, have established a sense of stewardship over the Canal that allowed them to play an active role in the decision-making and management of their immediate environment.

Words by Jameela Antoniette Mendoza