Earlier this week, local residents in the coastal province of Samut Songkhram staged a mass rally against renewed efforts by officialdom to continue the controversial floodway project set to destroy their hometown and the Chao Phraya River basin.
Their rally coincided with a petition from the Engineering Institute of Thailand and irrigation expert Pramote Maiklad calling on the military junta to scrap not only the floodway project, but the whole 350-billion-baht water management scheme for its disastrous impacts on the environment and its total lack of transparency.
They also called for the dissolution of the Office of the National Water and Flood Management Policy which was set up by the Yingluck government to supervise the poorly conceived water management scheme.
It is obvious why this agency has become a target.
The scheme was designed in haste without feasibility studies or local input. It is actually a combination of old dam projects with new plans such as the digging of a new river that will cut through the country. All this was done without any feasibility studies, environmental impact assessment, or public consultations as legally required.
Of great concern is the 153-billion-baht new river scheme. This planned new river will divert water from the Ping tributary of the Chao Phraya, then flow down to the Mae Klong Dam in Kanchanaburi before travelling through the Mae Klong River basin toward the Gulf of Thailand at Ban Laem district in Phetchaburi province.
Water diversion from the Chao Phraya means less water to irrigate rice fields in the Central Plains. Less volume in the existing network of rivers downstream will also enable sea water to push deeper inland which will seriously affect rice farming and agriculture along the coasts. Marine resources in the Gulf of Thailand will also be destroyed, along with the livelihoods of millions of fishermen.
In addition, the scheme’s top-down designation of flood retention areas in the Mae Klong river basin will destroy its vulnerable ecological landscape and local agricultural businesses that depend on it. The plan to build raised roads as flood barriers deep inland will also make riverside communities nearly perpetually flooded.
Plans to build over 20 dams in forests or earthquake-prone areas have also triggered fierce public resistance. Actually, the protests which later snowballed into mass rallies against the Yingluck government started off with a campaign against the construction of the Mae Wong Dam under the controversial 350-billion-baht flood prevention scheme.
Similar protests in different parts of the country and subsequent lawsuits against the scheme resulted in a court ruling requiring the government to carry out public hearings before the scheme could proceed.The ensuing hearings procedures were skewed, resulting in eventual breakdown and continuing conflicts.
Still the Office of the National Water and Flood Management Policy nonchalantly insisted this top-down, opaque scheme is perfect before submitting the whole thing to the military junta for approval again.
The National Council for Peace and Order did not exactly say yes or no. It says some projects will go ahead, some will not. Although the junta says it has no problem with the projects that are in line with royal initiatives which respect local topography, this is not enough to placate people’s concerns.
This 350-billion-baht water management scheme is seriously flawed. It poses a serious threat to the country’s environment and is vulnerable to mega corruption. The junta should heed public calls to scrap the scheme and reconsider the role of the Office of the National Water and Flood Management Policy. Any new water management schemes must also have public endorsement before they can proceed.
 
Earlier this week, local residents in the coastal province of Samut Songkhram staged a mass rally against renewed efforts by officialdom to continue the controversial floodway project set to destroy their hometown and the Chao Phraya River basin.
Their rally coincided with a petition from the Engineering Institute of Thailand and irrigation expert Pramote Maiklad calling on the military junta to scrap not only the floodway project, but the whole 350-billion-baht water management scheme for its disastrous impacts on the environment and its total lack of transparency.
They also called for the dissolution of the Office of the National Water and Flood Management Policy which was set up by the Yingluck government to supervise the poorly conceived water management scheme.
It is obvious why this agency has become a target.
The scheme was designed in haste without feasibility studies or local input. It is actually a combination of old dam projects with new plans such as the digging of a new river that will cut through the country. All this was done without any feasibility studies, environmental impact assessment, or public consultations as legally required.
Of great concern is the 153-billion-baht new river scheme. This planned new river will divert water from the Ping tributary of the Chao Phraya, then flow down to the Mae Klong Dam in Kanchanaburi before travelling through the Mae Klong River basin toward the Gulf of Thailand at Ban Laem district in Phetchaburi province.
Water diversion from the Chao Phraya means less water to irrigate rice fields in the Central Plains. Less volume in the existing network of rivers downstream will also enable sea water to push deeper inland which will seriously affect rice farming and agriculture along the coasts. Marine resources in the Gulf of Thailand will also be destroyed, along with the livelihoods of millions of fishermen.
In addition, the scheme’s top-down designation of flood retention areas in the Mae Klong river basin will destroy its vulnerable ecological landscape and local agricultural businesses that depend on it. The plan to build raised roads as flood barriers deep inland will also make riverside communities nearly perpetually flooded.
Plans to build over 20 dams in forests or earthquake-prone areas have also triggered fierce public resistance. Actually, the protests which later snowballed into mass rallies against the Yingluck government started off with a campaign against the construction of the Mae Wong Dam under the controversial 350-billion-baht flood prevention scheme.
Similar protests in different parts of the country and subsequent lawsuits against the scheme resulted in a court ruling requiring the government to carry out public hearings before the scheme could proceed.The ensuing hearings procedures were skewed, resulting in eventual breakdown and continuing conflicts.
Still the Office of the National Water and Flood Management Policy nonchalantly insisted this top-down, opaque scheme is perfect before submitting the whole thing to the military junta for approval again.
The National Council for Peace and Order did not exactly say yes or no. It says some projects will go ahead, some will not. Although the junta says it has no problem with the projects that are in line with royal initiatives which respect local topography, this is not enough to placate people’s concerns.
This 350-billion-baht water management scheme is seriously flawed. It poses a serious threat to the country’s environment and is vulnerable to mega corruption. The junta should heed public calls to scrap the scheme and reconsider the role of the Office of the National Water and Flood Management Policy. Any new water management schemes must also have public endorsement before they can proceed.
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