Civic groups blast NCPO water plan

Civic groups blast NCPO water plan

NRC urged to include local views in strategy

Civic groups have called for the National Council for Peace and Order's (NCPO) committee on water management to forward its draft plan to the National Reform Council (NRC) to correct its failure to include stakeholders' views.

The draft concerns water-management projects under the 900-billion-baht plan announced by the Royal Irrigation Department (RID) in January.

Academics, local leaders and civil society actors were among those to criticise the plan's third draft at a public forum held by an NRC committee yesterday.

The true needs of local people are not reflected in the NCPO's draft plans, said Uthai Payaptanakorn, a local leader in Chiang Mai's Mae Chaem district.

Locals were not included in the drafting process at all.

"The [drafting] committee sits in Bangkok but they fail to see how the draft strategy will affect living conditions in the areas concerned," he added.

"We want to have a say in the direction the plan will take. I have a bad feeling about it."

According to Mr Uthai, many locals need small- and medium-sized water reservoirs, but do not wish for a dam to be built.

Most civil society representatives at the forum had more confidence in the NRC's ability to draw up a new water-management strategy that would reflect their demands than the NCPO committee, he said.

Sitang Pilaila, the Engineering Institute of Thailand's (EIT) secretary to the sub-committee on water resources, agreed with locals' calls.

"We must work with the NCPO to correct the draft so it could serve as a framework for the NRC to work with," she said.

An NRC member, Ms Sitang said the council was working to include local voices in the national water strategy.

The EIT has been advising the NCPO committee on water resources for the past seven months and has demanded it correct the draft three times already.

Many of the 4,000 projects proposed in the plan and rejected in the first draft reappeared in following drafts. The aims of the RID have been prioritised over stakeholders' needs, she said.

Along with a large number of academics, the EIT questioned the RID for its 10-year plan, saying it has no long-term strategy and current drafts cannot be agreed upon.

Anti-dam activist Sasin Chalermlarp pointed out there were no real channels for civil society to express their views regarding such infrastructure projects and propose alternative models.

"The RID designs its plans then proceeds directly to defend them. There is no real discussion," he said. 

He suggested instead that technical hearings be held before a project is given the go-ahead.

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