The Finance Ministry and the Budget Bureau have been ordered to find funding for state-initiated water management projects over the next five years, as the annual fiscal budget is unlikely to be sufficient for all the projects being planned.
Somkiat Prachamwong, secretary-general of the Office of National Water Resources (ONWR), said the national water resource committee chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday authorised the Finance Ministry and the Budget Bureau to procure loans to develop water management projects between 2019-23.
"In fiscal 2020 alone, for instance, demand for investment in water projects is as high as 100 billion baht, but the Budget Bureau can provide only 63 billion baht," said Mr Somkiat.
He said the public-private partnership investment format is not suitable for water development because the returns are quite low, making it unattractive for private investment.
The committee also required responsible state units to outline the priorities of their development projects and focus only on those that conform to the 20-year national strategic plan.
The committee also approved the 20-year master plan for the country's water management system yesterday.
Drafted by the ONWR and several other agencies, the master plan is in line with the government's three core plans, namely the 20-year national strategy plan, the plan to reform the country's water resources and the sustainable development plan.
The 20-year version of the water management plan is scheduled to be implemented from this year until 2037.
The water management plan consists of six core areas of water resource de- velopment.
The first area of the plan deals with the management of water for consumption and general use.
Under this part of the plan, the government aims to enhance the efficiency of running water systems in 20,034 villages, further develop the quality of running water in 9,816 city areas and economic zones -- which cover 4.5 million households -- and ensure that running water supplied to about 75,032 villages countrywide is safe to drink.
The second part deals with the improvement of water security in the farming sector, with measures to improve the efficiency of the existing water supply system, which has a combined capacity of 717 million cubic metres.
The goal is to develop a new system to divert water and link up all water resources to increase water volume to 2.5 billion cu m.
The third part concerns flood management, which includes work to unblock 562 watercourses and 1,234 natural waterways with a combined length of 5,500 kilometres.
Other parts of the same section of the plan include work to prevent floods in 764 flood-prone communities in urban areas.
The fourth part of the plan deals with water quality management and water resource preservation, which includes work to prevent and mitigate water pollution in watershed areas.
The fifth part deals with prevention and mitigation of soil erosion in watershed areas, covering about 450,000 rai.
The sixth part deals with the general management of water, such as amending related laws and establishing a new organisation to deal directly with water management, with a focus on developing a water information database and supporting water development R&D.