Flood policies lacking in focus

ONE YEAR ON

Flood policies lacking in focus

• Published: 18/08/2012 at 02:48 AM
• Newspaper section: News

It has been almost one year since a grim-faced Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra went on TV on Oct 7, 2011, to tell the nation it was in the middle of the worst flood crisis in several decades.

Several new policies have been issued, new agencies set up and a huge budget approved since last year's flood wreaked havoc that caused 1.4 trillion baht in damage. But public confidence does not seem to have grown.
The prime minister emphasised the need to have a single command centre for water resources and flood management, but the government set up at least three new agencies to handle that task.
It started with the Strategic Committee for Water Resources Management, chaired by the prime minister. After that, two other agencies were established with the same goal of water resource management and flood prevention.
They are the Water and Flood Management Commission, chaired by Science Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi, and the Office of the National Water and Flood Management Policy (ONWF), headed by Supoj Tovichakchaikul, deputy permanent secretary of the Environment Ministry.
The government said all information on water management would go directly to the ONWF.
Academics and environmental activists are not confident the authorities will be able to realise that ambition.
Hannarong Yaowalert, president of the Foundation for Integrated Water Management, said that despite the establishment of the new agencies, the government has ignored the existing national water committee, which comprises 25 committees from 25 river basins across the country.
The committee includes state officials, academics, water experts and local people. It has served as the focal point in managing the nation's water systems.
"The government set up new agencies because it wanted to speed up the implementation of water management projects. But these will end up creating conflicts with local people," Mr Hannnarong warned.
The national water committee is chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung. It has not held any meetings for more than one year.
Kampanad Bhatikul, dean of the faculty of environment and resource studies at Mahidol University, voiced his concern over the transparency of the 350 billion baht budget the government has earmarked to spend on flood prevention.
He said a special panel should be established to inspect the projects. "It seems that this large sum of money has been managed by only one group of people. What we need to see is a good system of checks and balances," he said.
The Water and Flood Management Commission headed by Mr Plodprasop is in charge of the budget. It has recently eased some criteria for companies interested in bidding for projects after facing criticism that the process favoured large international companies over local ones.
What is especially worrying, Mr Kampanad said, is that the ONWF - which is supposed to be the single-command authority - has not been doing its job.
"We have seen floods in Lampang, Phrae, Tak and Khon Kaen, yet there is no information from the ONWF. Now should be the time for the flood management system to be tested. There is no need to wait until the floods hit the capital," he said.
Lertviroj Kowattana, chief of the Royal Irrigation Department, said it received a limited budget of 42.9 billion baht last year. The department managed to increase its irrigation network by around 300,000 rai, he said.
The improved irrigation system means water storage capacity has been increased by 130 million cubic metres.
The department has done feasibility studies for megaprojects to improve the nation's irrigation system, in conjunction with a comprehensive flood management plan, but it has to wait for a clear policy from the Water and Flood Management Commission to come first.
Jatuporn Buruspat, chief of the Department of Water Resources, said his agency has diverted more than half of its budget towards cleaning up rivers and canals.
Together, it has carried out more than 1,178 projects with a budget of 5.9 billion baht. If successful, these efforts would increase water storage capacity by 218 million cubic metres.
For the next fiscal year, the department has planned to rehabilitate 36,000 of 50,000 wetlands deemed to be in poor condition. Healthy swamps can increase water storage by 5 billion cubic metres, Mr Jatuporn said.

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