The government's 350-billion-baht water management scheme is well-planned and will be able to safeguard the country from future major floods, the Water and Flood Management Committee (WFMC) told an international forum on water management.
Apichart Anukularmphai, an adviser to the WFMC's sub-committee on project appraisal, said statistics showed that major flooding like the 2011 disaster would occur every 100 years and the scheme is designed to prevent such flooding in the next 100 years.
He was speaking at the two-day conference, ``Challenges in flood risk management in urban areas of river deltas in South and Southeast Asia'' in Bangkok which concluded yesterday.
The seminar, organised by the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre, was attended by senior officials and water management experts from South and Southeast Asian countries.
Participants in the conference shared experiences of water resource management in the Mekong, Chao Phraya, Irrawaddy and Ganges-Brahmaputra deltas.
Mr Apichart said the water management scheme consists of different methods such as reforestation, constructions of reservoirs, floodwater diversion channels, and designation of retention areas.
Public hearings are currently being arranged in 36 provinces to gauge opinions from people who will be affected by the scheme, he said.
Mr Apichart also defended the government's decision to adopt the design-and-build method for the scheme, saying that it would save time and prevent overspending on the projects.
Sceptics have widely criticised the method, which they said will open up opportunities for corruption while favouring individuals.
Under a design-and-build contract, the design and construction services are contracted by a single entity known as a design-build contractor.
``Design-build will save time and prevent cost escalation. It's still a new approach for Thailand, so, some institutions don't understand this,'' explained Mr Apichart.
``We learnt that we have no time to waste because there's a chance the 2011 floods will happen again,'' he said.
Some participants at the conference questioned if the scheme is based too much on infrastructure, and if it addresses concerns of livelihood adaptation and human resource skill development.
Responding to the questions, Mr Apichart said: ``We try to balance non-structural and structural measures. We know we can't rely too much on structure. But we can't avoid that.''
Dao Xuan Hoc, a former deputy minister from Vietnam's Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry, said the Vietnamese government has long battled with floods in the country and they have learned that any water management project must planned for the long term.
The government implemented a water resource management plan, with the aim of coping with floods, in the late 1990s.
The plan prevents residents and farmland from annual floods. Rice exports increased from 9 million tonnes to 21 million tonnes after the plan was implemented, he said.
The conference on Thursday concluded with the establishment of an informal network of water management experts and governments officers working on flood prevention. Vietnam was selected to be a facilitator of the network.