Water management plans are stagnating, but now a drought threatens

Three years after the major floods of 2011, very little progress has been made in the field of water management. The planning, initiated by the Yingluck government, has come to a standstill and the junta has ordered a new water management plan to be drawn up.

But floods are not the biggest risk this year: that is the looming drought. The authorities are concerned about the extremely low water level in the major reservoirs (see infographic). There are two reasons for this: a lot of water was discharged last year to combat the drought at the time and the area with second rice crops, the so-called off-season rice, has increased to 900.000 rai, considerably more than the manageable target of 470.000 rai.

The planning of the previous government stalled last December when the House of Representatives was dissolved. The plans consist of nine modules for which the contractors have already been chosen. In concrete terms, this involves the construction of waterways (including a super canal), the construction of flood defences, the construction of water collection areas and an information and management system. The plans provoked a lot of protest during hearings.

According to Pramote Maiklad, former director of the Royal Irrigation Department (RID), the government wanted to rush things too much and the projects were not studied enough.

In the meantime, a few things have happened on a small scale:

• The RID has worked on dikes, weir gates, pumping stations and waterways. "We've made a lot of progress, but some projects have been delayed because of land disputes," said RID's director-general.
• The Highways Department has not been idle either. It has raised roads of 300 km in Ayutthaya, Samut Prakan, Bangkok, Pathum Thani and Nonthaburi. As a result, they act as a barrier against flooding.
• The Department of Rural Roads has also raised roads over a length of 360 km sheet piles placed along river banks.

According to an investigation by the Court of Auditors, 290 million baht of the 7 billion baht budget has been spent in places where there is no risk of flooding at all. The Court looked at 137 routes in 21 provinces; 21 routes appeared to be unaffected by flooding.

(Source: Bangkok Post, October 20, 2014)