Opposition is building to the government's lavish 900 billion baht water management plan, with the Thachin River Basin's council and its 50 water management networks planning to submit a letter in protest.
The council and its networks will submit a letter to Commerce Minister Gen Chatchai Sarikulya next week, asking his panel to review the water management projects, which fall under a 10-year plan.
Gen Chatchai heads the Water Management and Policy Committee panel that recently approved the plan.
The council and its networks say the plan is too costly, with no guarantees it will solve anything.
Kamol Peamsomboon, the chairman of the council, said no one could be sure the plan could tackle drought and flooding problems effectively.
The King's royally-initiated projects never spent such a large amount of money to deal with the problem in the past.
The King understands the problem deeply and deals with it in a way that doesn't affect people, costs less and has better benefits, he said. The panel should follow the King's ideas instead, he said.
"I will submit a letter to Gen Chatchai, asking his panel to review the plan as it fails to deal with the problem in a sustainable way.
"It seems they proposed the amount of money first with no specific projects in mind. We're concerned about the public and financial transparency of the water management plan," he said.
Protests are likely if the government insists on going ahead with it, he predicted.
"People might no longer be afraid of a gun if their patience runs out,'' he said.
The Department of Royal Irrigation (DRI), which provides secretarial services to the Chatchai committee, argued the projects would deliver value for money and would help tackle the problem.
The Engineering Institute of Thailand (EIT) also questioned the 900-billion-baht water management plan, saying the DRI should make it clear where the investment money will come from, as huge sums are involved.
Sitang Pilaila, EIT's secretary to a sub-committee on engineering water resources, said as far as she knows the plans details are expected to be completed by the end of this month.
"If the details are not completed as planned, where will the Department of Royal Irrigation get its figures from?" she asked. "I understand that the department is throwing all projects into the plan without caring if they really work or not. The construction of big dams will also be included. How could it happen as locals still don't want it?"
The EIT earlier wrote to Gen Chatchai, calling for his panel to listen to people's opinions about the plan after finding out the public had barely been consulted on the water scheme.
The DRI and the Department of Water Resources held meetings to gather people's opinions on the plan last year, but they must have ignored what locals thought about it, she said.