Corporate Responsibility
BASF and partners help Thailand reconnect rivers to its cities and people

BASF, the world’s leading chemical company, together with KICT (Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology), TGWA (Thailand Global Warming Academy) and SBB (SBB Co), have entered a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) agreement to undertake river restoration and environmental improvement projects in Thailand.

“In Thailand, rivers experience intensified flooding during storm seasons. Due to this and rapid urban development in our cities, rivers are becoming increasingly polluted and disconnected from people’s lives,” said Professor Dr. Thanawat Jarupongsakul, President of TGWA. “We are delighted to be collaborating with international experts to explore how we can restore our rivers’ ecology with new technologies and processes that also help with flood risk management. In so doing, we also aim to reconnect rivers to our cities and people.”

KICT and TGWA will provide oversight and organize the projects, while KICT will also provide technical and operational knowledge arising from its successful projects under the Green River concept, as well as successful projects with its Thai partners. BASF and SBB will supply technologies and materials to support the projects. As a manufacturer of concrete blocks for river and coast protection, SBB has been working with BASF since 2010 to safeguard shores from strong winds and erosion. The partners aim to use technologies that provide an adequate habitat for vegetation and help cities to overcome flooding and erosion challenges, which in turn will help connect people and rivers.

“BASF’s porous and water-permeable solution can help cities overcome flooding challenges while supporting the ecological balance of rivers through water purification and revegetation,” said Andy Postlethwaite, Senior Vice President, Performance Materials Asia Pacific, BASF. BASF solutions have also been installed in weirs across Asia to change concrete fishways into natural looking curved fishways.

Apart from rivers, BASF’s porous and water-permeable restoration solutions are also widely used in coastal areas to better protect the coastline from erosion and landslides. In Thailand, various coastal projects have been installed with BASF’s solutions, including beaches in Pattaya, which are frequently destroyed by high tides. Korea’s first revetment built with BASF’s solution, installed in 2011, has remained intact even after weathering many typhoons.