I. First progress report (January 5, 2009):
Activities undertaken:
1. Building capacity of target population through training on construction of filter pits, field survey and preparation of model households
2. Launching campaigns on upgrading scenery
3. Participating in kick-of meeting with other SGP project of the same grant cycle

Results of activities:
1. Active participation of 120 representatives from both private and public sectors with initiation to formulate plan for incorporating into those of municipal and forge networking at Tabol, district and provincial level
2. Identified locations under encroachment and serious pollution for further possible legal measure
3. Awareness and initiated action to protect the canal of 15 families
4. Increased technical capacity of 50 community/youth members on production of ionic plasma, with potential of retraining and putting into practice
5. Increased management capacity of project leaders through sharing

Project Communication:
1. Once-a-month meeting through people forum at community/Tambol/district/provincial level and weaving environmental CBOs /NGOs in Bangkok
2. Disseminating tracts, friendly discoursing and joint exhibition with relevant public organizations

Experience and Lessons Learnt:
1. Several communities are still required to instill with conservation awareness, especially on re-use/recycle. This situation was addressed by continuous campaigns to build conservation awareness
2.Sometimes after high tides, quantity of washed up solid waste was too prevalent for community capacity to deal with. The project had formulated a plan to reverse this and submitted to the Samrongtai Tambol Municipality.
3. Migratory communities were less cooperative thus requiring inspiration activities.

Project Expense:
The project report the expense of THB: 126,233 out of the first disbursement of THB:247,820.88

II. Second progress report (July 7, 2009):
Activities undertaken:
1. Keeping on building capacity of target population through training on construction of filter pits, field survey and preparation of model households
2. Putting into practice what being learnt in 1
3. keeping on launching campaigns on upgrading scenery

Results of activities:
1. Emergence of one set of filter pits in community school as a model for target population
2. Approximately 2,000 litres of ionic plasma and 3,000 ionic cake (each of 300 grammes in weight) being produced and put into use to maintain water quality
3. Evinced cleaner water quality witnessed through teeming water species such as mud skippers and crams
4. Emergence of action plan to cover all eight canals in Tambol Hua Sua

Project Communication:
1. Through monthly meeting of people forum at all levels (village, Tambol, Municipality and Provincial)
2. Through monthly meeting of regional environment network in Bangkok and its suburban
3. Launching campaigns using tracts with Wat Bangfai School
4. Exhibition with other public organization

Experience and Lessons Learnt:
During the past 11 months, the project implemented proposed activities in an integrated way with community schools and entrepreneurs to monitor water quality making the canal a model for case study of Samutprakarn Province. Still, the three issues specified in the previous quarter were still valid.

Project Expense:
The project report the accumulated expense of THB: 467,155 out of the sum of 1 & 2 disbursement of THB: 495,854.85.

III. Monitoring visit by NC and NSC (January 27, 2010):
Findings & Observations:
At the office of Community Organization Council of Tambol Bang Hua Sua at Baan (village) Bangfai, the visiting team met with community leaders to hear about the history of communities , background of community organizations and results of activities , both under GEF SGP support and under other major stakeholders. Project leaders articulated these through power points and movie clips made by a national TV channel. So far, the visiting team agreed that the displayed result covered more than the written report. Each leader was able to share his stories and display conservation awareness satisfactorily.

Walking through the village for about half-an-hour, it was found out that community livelihood was not totally of urban type, even though it was situated only about 20 kilometers from Bangkok Metropolitan territory. Once a cultivated area and sources of several kinds of landrace until about 40 years ago, now the village becomes a residential areas with only about 10 out of 280 households still practicing agriculture. Due to modern development pattern of the past four decades, the village was surrounded by factories of all kinds and various sizes. By-and-large, operations of the these factories resulted in pollution to the Khlong (canal) Bangfai connecting the Chaophaya River. The communities has been using the canal for agricultural practice and transportation for years.

Sailing in a small engine boat along the 3 kilometer-long canal, project leaders pointed out each and every possible point sources of pollution from factories situated in the vicinity. It was confirmed that several these factories became stakeholders of the project and were willing to cooperate. One related and witnessed example was the financial & technical contribution from the South Bangkok Thermal Plan, an electricity utility long established next to the village. The water quality in the canal was monitored every month?s fourth day , at the point where the canal diverges into the Chaophaya River. During the boat trip, an irregular drainage from a factory was spotted prompting a project leader to make a call through his cell phone discussing the irregularity with the factory management.

The visiting team agreed that the project had fared and produce resulted satisfactorily. It ,so far, appeared to meet expectation of target community . Capacity and awareness of community leaders in contact were demonstrated adequately with outreach to cover other districts in Samutprakarn Province to ensure holistic management. In fact, the grantee is a strong leader of the Community Organization Council of Tambol Bang Hua Sua which was established under the Community Organization Act. In addition, many project leaders are members of Samutprakarn Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Volunteer Squad , appointed by the governor.