Residents Complain of Cables Invading Their Homes

Charoen Kosachan ducks under wires on May 26, 2020 in Pong Kham Fak village in Phetchabun.

PHETCHABUN — The cables started appearing in Pong Kham Fak village in November. Since then, the community has been filled with wires draped over roofs, cutting across roads, blocking house entrances, and even taking up farming space. 

The residents now demand answers from the Provincial Electrical Authority, who reportedly allowed private companies to install those cables, 500 meters in total length, without consideration for the locals. 

“They didn’t bother to install up in the air,” Sakmontri Kaew-aonkwa, assistant village headman, said Tuesday. “The reason they gave was that the wires belong to a private company, so the company should be responsible.” 

Sakmontri said he assumed the electricity authorities would contact the private company in charge, but nothing happened. He said he was concerned that residents would be harmed by the cables on the ground. 

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“I’m afraid that the wires will hurt me, or I will accidentally damage them and get prosecuted,” resident Charoen Kosachan, 73, said. 

The village’s plight came after one of the residents complained online about wires interfering with his farms. The officials responded by removing the cables from the private property, but then left them on public ground, residents said. 

Thailand’s telephone cables are notorious for their unsightly, haphazard installation that often wounds or even kills passersby.

In January, a hanging cable almost decapitated a foreign motorcyclist in Kanchanaburi. Bangkok governor Aswin Kwanmuang said the city would move telecommunications cables underground by 2021.

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