King Rama IX was inspired to initiate this project after recalling monkey behavior he had observed during childhood. After gathering bananas, the monkeys would eat and store the food in their cheeks. As is seen in the Kaem Ling Project, His Majesty used this memory in order to develop a method for flood prevention. In the project, “Monkey cheeks” are the retention areas that prevent water from flooding into Bangkok and metropolitan areas. By excavating the canals along the coastal areas, both east and west of the Chao Phraya River, the project created big storage reservoirs, or Kaem Ling (Monkey Cheek), which naturally drain floodwater away. 

The project initially dealt with solving flooding problems in Bangkok and metropolitan areas by excavating the canals along the coastal areas both in the west and the east of the Chao Phraya River to serve as big storage reservoirs or Kaem Ling (Monkey Cheek) and draining floodwaters away by natural means such as gravity flow or tidal flow. At present, the Kaem Ling Project has extended to cover other areas namely the Nong Yai Area Development Project (Nong Yai-Natural Kaem Ling), Chumphon Province and the Project to Relieve Food Problems in the Khlong U Ta Phao Basin, Hat Yai, Songkhla Province.