Govt Plan To Divert Water From Mekong River Draws Support And Opposition

[george]

Govt plan to divert water from Mekong River draws support and opposition

BANGKOK: -- Drought is long standing problem in the northeastern region and it has not been solved by any government. The current administration is planning to reintroduce the idea to divert water from the Mekong River into the region. It’s a controversial issue as some people question if the project is worth investing an enormous budget.

A recent seminar on the plan to divert the river water was held by the Water and Quality of Life Foundation and local media. The seminar raised the issue that there should be no cost of production, and so residents should not have to pay for the water. Other important questions included where the water would be stored and how to divert water from the Mekong to other rivers in the northeastern region. The government needed to conduct thorough studies and public participation was required.

“The water level at each location of the diversion line showed the area in the northeastern region sloped downward to the south and the east. Gravity will help the water flow into the diversion tunnel. We don’t need water pumps. It’s not worth using pumps when the gasoline costs over 30 baht per litre," said Dr. Chongkon Pimwapee, Foundation Committee.

The Water and Quality of Life Foundation conducted an initial study on the planned water diversion to tackle drought in the northeastern provinces eight years ago. The academics found the project was possible and proposed the result of the study to the then government, but the project was ignored. Academics however think the northeastern region doesn’t have a problem with water shortage, but rather a problem with water management. Water diversion from the Mekong River would not be worthwhile.

“According to the data from similar projects in Africa and South America, costs of water diversion through tunnels is high. A government needs a big budget to finance such a project,” said Asst. Prof. Yanyong Inmuang Mahasarakham University.

Environmental problems such as saline soil and river bank erosion were issues of concern. Drought was one of those problems which could possibly be resolved without spending a large sum of money as there was plenty of groundwater in the northeastern region, academics argued.

-- TNA 2008-03-02

[Martin]

Francois Molle and Phillippe Floch have written a deeply critical paper about this.

In summary, they show it to be unnecessary, impractical due to salinity effects, and unachievable due to lack of available labour.

Their paper is entitled: "Water, Poverty, and the Governance of Megaprojects: The Thai "Water Grid"".

Smaller developments, properly managed, would be a much better goal to adopt.

But that won't be easily accepted by the power groups of the capital city.

It is to be expected that one of the knock-on effects of the coming Western recession on the Thai economy (as presently organised with its dependence on manufacture-for-export) will be to knock this proposal out of the national budget.

[seonai]

Hi Martin can you explain 'salinity' please

[chownah]

Here's a link to the Francois Molle and Philippe Floch report:

http://www.mpowernet.org/download_pubdoc.php?doc=3271

Seonai,

Salinity means saltiness....in farming, salt either in the water or in the soil reduces yields and in higher concentrations can inhibit all growth creating a salt desert in what would be otherwise productive soil. Isaan has large areas where there are huge subterranean salt deposits...if you just dump more water there it will raise the ground water table and bring dissolved salt to the surface where it will cause problems. In some cases you can mitigate this problem by constructing a drainage system but this is expensive...I suppose that it could double the cost of the project (but don't quote me on this "double" estimate as I really don't know how much it would increase the costs) because not only do you have to build a system of canals to bring the water but you have to create a system of canals to remove water as well....also, what do you do with all this salty water?...discharge it into the gulf?...and what would the environmental effects of that be?.....I don't know but you can see that it gets complicated...

Chownah

[Thai at Heart]

Here's a link to the Francois Molle and Philippe Floch report:

http://www.mpowernet.org/download_pubdoc.php?doc=3271

Seonai,

Salinity means saltiness....in farming, salt either in the water or in the soil reduces yields and in higher concentrations can inhibit all growth creating a salt desert in what would be otherwise productive soil. Isaan has large areas where there are huge subterranean salt deposits...if you just dump more water there it will raise the ground water table and bring dissolved salt to the surface where it will cause problems. In some cases you can mitigate this problem by constructing a drainage system but this is expensive...I suppose that it could double the cost of the project (but don't quote me on this "double" estimate as I really don't know how much it would increase the costs) because not only do you have to build a system of canals to bring the water but you have to create a system of canals to remove water as well....also, what do you do with all this salty water?...discharge it into the gulf?...and what would the environmental effects of that be?.....I don't know but you can see that it gets complicated...

Chownah

[/quote

Plenty of massively saline soil areas already in Isaan. Between these buffoons and and paper and sugar/ethanol industry, all that will be grown in Isaan in 30 years will be eucalyptus and sugar cane. Rain water catch in damns, now that might be a worthwhile megaproject.

Better question? Why shouldn't they pay for water?

[Martin]

For Seonai:

As 'chownah' has said, introducing water in higher quatities than before risks stirring up underlying salt beds, and the salty water, so far from the sea, creates problems far greater than the benefits from bringing in the extra water.

As 'Thai at Heart' has said, Isaan would benefit most from better management of capturing and storing rainfall.

The problem with that is that, at the moment, it fails the third part of the test of sustainability, which says that for any project to be sustainable it must be economically, environmentally, and socio-politically sustainable.

Improving local management structures inherently implies allowing the building up of educated 'middle-class' acceptable-to-the-people local-leadership networks in the rural areas of the provinces and that does not fit with the picture of a Thailand in which power groups in Bangkok hold all the power (even if there is a three-way self-defeating split between 'old elite/military', 'middle class' and 'business').

In the short term, I don't foresee much happening for the better in Isaan; but in the longer term I can envisage a rebuilding of the social capital of the village (and of the towns and small cities that serve the villages). I recently did a study for an MA-by-research on that. Send me a PM with your e-mail address if you would like a copy of my recent article in the Journal of Mekong Societies that reported that study.

[chownah]

I would like to see a comparison between the Mekhong water diversion costs (including estimated overruns) and a theoretic project where they just hire anyone in Isaan who wants to work for 200 baht per day planting trees....how many people could they hire for how many days and how many trees could they plant and how much industry could they generate processing the wood into usable articles?...I don't really know but it would be interesting to know.....

chownah

[Thai at Heart]

I would like to see a comparison between the Mekhong water diversion costs (including estimated overruns) and a theoretic project where they just hire anyone in Isaan who wants to work for 200 baht per day planting trees....how many people could they hire for how many days and how many trees could they plant and how much industry could they generate processing the wood into usable articles?...I don't really know but it would be interesting to know.....

chownah

Phoenix Pulp have been trying for years, and if you search just a little bit about that company, one can see what happens in a really well run company!

[waveydavey]

What would be effects on the Mekong itself and the communities further downstream in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam that depend on the river?

I know it's the dry season but the last time I was in Vientiane the river level was very low, with sandbanks in the middle.

[chownah]

What would be effects on the Mekong itself and the communities further downstream in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam that depend on the river?

I know it's the dry season but the last time I was in Vientiane the river level was very low, with sandbanks in the middle.

I haven't read the entire study but they did mention that water would only be withdrawn when there was adequate flow...and that water would not be withdrawn during the dry season which is when it would be needed the most...and...that there is not enough storage to withdraw in the rainy season and then hold over for the dry season....I don't know if they meant that there is not enough existing storage or if the plan did not call out for enough stoage to be built or if it would be almost impossible to build enough storage or if it would be too expensive to build enough storage....I didn't read it all and I missed exactly what the problem was but I do remember they said that during the dry season water would not be withdrawn and that storing from the rainy season was a problem.

Chownah

[astral]

Salinity may be an issue with estuarial waters, but the mighty Mekong

is hundreds of kilometres from the sea, where it passes Thailand.

[jayjayjayjay]

Francois Molle and Phillippe Floch have written a deeply critical paper about this.

In summary, they show it to be unnecessary, impractical due to salinity effects, and unachievable due to lack of available labour.

Their paper is entitled: "Water, Poverty, and the Governance of Megaprojects: The Thai "Water Grid"".

Smaller developments, properly managed, would be a much better goal to adopt.

But that won't be easily accepted by the power groups of the capital city.

It is to be expected that one of the knock-on effects of the coming Western recession on the Thai economy (as presently organised with its dependence on manufacture-for-export) will be to knock this proposal out of the national budget.

An interesting paper, but it is written progressivly in the negative, from the outset you can find continuing resentment to support the arguement against the project. This is very poor paper presentation.

A number of points i find exceptional. Labour in Issan is the major restricting factor? How can they ever assume this to be the case. Two thirds of Issan population are not liveing or working at home, they are taxi drivers in BKK, working overseas in Agriculture, or working in low paying factory jobs anywhere from the shores of Chaophaya river to Rayong on the Eastern Seaboard. What a great majority would this group of migrant workers do if the oportunity of good work in the beloved Issan existed for them.

The next point is agriculture itself. Issan agriculture is moving towards greater mechanisation, but it is still 30 years behind the west. Labour will not be a factor in ANY forseeable future with a balance of physical and increasing mechanisation contributing to the ability to cover the area under the proposal. Look at Israel, only 6 million people but able to easily irrigate successfully about half the area proposed in Issan. Issan has half that population in Nakan Ratchasema alone!!!!!!!

Salinity, well, that's a curve ball. Prove where it is really a problem in Thailand now. I say that because I come from an area that is so called devistated by salinity in southern Australia. The only thing is, agriculture continues. It may be an issue. But farmers are not really affected. It can be seen in small areas, but the reality is the arguement of salinity is a greater one of academics rather than the man on the land. I just don't believe they have proven ANY form of an arguement strong enough to force a project with great human benefit to stop because of their mention of salinity. PS. the best Jasmine rice in the world comes from Surin Province where "saline soils" are a major component of aiding the creation of the magnificent arromatics of Jasmine.

The Mekong river basin is the "Rice-Bowl-of-Asia". The magnificent irrigation systems in place, if proposed today would be compared against, , , wait for it, , , the "Desert Bloom" syndrome as they call it....... The fact is areas used in there paper a still magnificent producers of agricultural produce. Israel irrigations system of which I have intricant knowledge is quite unbelievable in achieving it's aim, and that is greening a desert to allow a propulation to florish in an otherwise inhospitable land. The same is what MrT wishes for Issan.

The other component that they conveniently ignore, and I find it insulting that a couple of learned schoolars should be so short sited to ignore it's impact. That is the ability for agriculture to eventually cover a growing portion of energy sources in place of hydrocarbons. Persons of Molle and Flock are not visionaries. It takes visionaries to take risks in creation of dedicated sustainalbe agricultural resources to allow megaprojects the space and utilisation of water resources with applicable soils types to create mass low cost sugar or tapioca to see ecconimically viable ethanol production plants provide viable sustainable fuels resources. This may not have been viable 10 years ago, but with 100 a barrel fuel, it is funny how the shoes now on the other foot. Farmers can be the winners in our Earths challenge to support our consumption needs. As Molle and Flock ride around Chiangmai University's campus on their Yamaha Fino's or Honda Wave's, I challenge then to think a little more about there Executive Summary in this paper.......................

[Plus]

Various irrigation projects for Isan have been studied to decades. Then comes Samak with his own idea on a subject he knows nothing about, and suddenly all those experts must forget what they know and comply with the wisdom of the new guru.

Samak can study different proposals and choose one, not to throw them all with in the bin in favour of his own, self-proclaimed knowledge.

It's a sure recipe for disaster.

[chownah]

Salinity, well, that's a curve ball. Prove where it is really a problem in Thailand now. I say that because I come from an area that is so called devistated by salinity in southern Australia. The only thing is, agriculture continues. It may be an issue. But farmers are not really affected. It can be seen in small areas, but the reality is the arguement of salinity is a greater one of academics rather than the man on the land. I just don't believe they have proven ANY form of an arguement strong enough to force a project with great human benefit to stop because of their mention of salinity. PS. the best Jasmine rice in the world comes from Surin Province where "saline soils" are a major component of aiding the creation of the magnificent arromatics of Jasmine.

I'm not taking sides in this issue since I don't have enough knowledge to make a determination.....but just so people understand the articles assertions, here's a part of their remarks on salinity:

"Salinity constraints in Isaan were identified early on. The reconnaissance survey on the Chi-Mun basin carried out by the US Bureau of Reclamation in 1965 acknowledged that salinity problems would doom the project "to eventual failure without adequate drainage facilities, which in the area may not be financially feasible" (USBR 1965). The KCM project would prove this prediction true and serves here as a reminder of how the development and spread of salinity impacts on and interferes with rural production and livelihoods. With the construction of the Rasi Salai the balance of seasonal distribution of saline waters in the Mun river was affected, with closed gates storing (saline) dry season flows, which were subsequently planned for irrigation water use through pump irrigation. With saline waters accumulating in the storage facility and used for irrigation, salinization was introduced to highland paddy fields, which in turn forced farmers to increasingly give up dry season cultivation, the very reason why the storage was built in the first place. In addition, water tables raised by the impounding of water by the weirs have come close to the surface and fuelled capillary rises and subsequent salinization of soil surface. A farmer was reported to say that “We [the farmers] can see the muddy salt dust on the ground, and in the dry years, our rice seedlings die completely. We have rapidly become poor during these years, and have to buy rice to eat every year. We are no longer real farmers” (Sretthachau et al. 2000)."

It is true that some crops can tolerate a certain degree of salinity but there is a limit beyond which they will not fluorish...or even survive. Again....I'm not agreeing or disagreeing....My view is that if the US Bureau or Reclamation says that drainage is necessary then I take this recommendation seriously because almost assuredly they are not pressured unduly by Thai politics and as far as I know they do have a good track record and are capable of performing a valid analysis and recommendation...but again I have not seen their report on this issue so I can not really agree or disagree with it....also I would point out that the US Bureau of Reclamation's comments were addressed to the Chi-Mun basin project and not this larger one but my view is that from the little I know the presence of salt as a problem in agriculture is not limited to that basin so building drainage facilites in a wider project should be a high priority item for study since if they are needed and not provided the result might be increased salinity year on year leading to loss of crop viability....as a possibility.

Chownah

Edited March 4, 2008 by chownah

[jayjayjayjay]

Salinity, well, that's a curve ball. Prove where it is really a problem in Thailand now. I say that because I come from an area that is so called devistated by salinity in southern Australia. The only thing is, agriculture continues. It may be an issue. But farmers are not really affected. It can be seen in small areas, but the reality is the arguement of salinity is a greater one of academics rather than the man on the land. I just don't believe they have proven ANY form of an arguement strong enough to force a project with great human benefit to stop because of their mention of salinity. PS. the best Jasmine rice in the world comes from Surin Province where "saline soils" are a major component of aiding the creation of the magnificent arromatics of Jasmine.

I'm not taking sides in this issue since I don't have enough knowledge to make a determination.....but just so people understand the articles assertions, here's a part of their remarks on salinity:

"Salinity constraints in Isaan were identified early on. The reconnaissance survey on the Chi-Mun basin carried out by the US Bureau of Reclamation in 1965 acknowledged that salinity problems would doom the project "to eventual failure without adequate drainage facilities, which in the area may not be financially feasible" (USBR 1965). The KCM project would prove this prediction true and serves here as a reminder of how the development and spread of salinity impacts on and interferes with rural production and livelihoods. With the construction of the Rasi Salai the balance of seasonal distribution of saline waters in the Mun river was affected, with closed gates storing (saline) dry season flows, which were subsequently planned for irrigation water use through pump irrigation. With saline waters accumulating in the storage facility and used for irrigation, salinization was introduced to highland paddy fields, which in turn forced farmers to increasingly give up dry season cultivation, the very reason why the storage was built in the first place. In addition, water tables raised by the impounding of water by the weirs have come close to the surface and fuelled capillary rises and subsequent salinization of soil surface. A farmer was reported to say that "We [the farmers] can see the muddy salt dust on the ground, and in the dry years, our rice seedlings die completely. We have rapidly become poor during these years, and have to buy rice to eat every year. We are no longer real farmers" (Sretthachau et al. 2000)."

It is true that some crops can tolerate a certain degree of salinity but there is a limit beyond which they will not fluorish...or even survive. Again....I'm not agreeing or disagreeing....My view is that if the US Bureau or Reclamation says that drainage is necessary then I take this recommendation seriously because almost assuredly they are not pressured unduly by Thai politics and as far as I know they do have a good track record and are capable of performing a valid analysis and recommendation...but again I have not seen their report on this issue so I can not really agree or disagree with it....also I would point out that the US Bureau of Reclamation's comments were addressed to the Chi-Mun basin project and not this larger one but my view is that from the little I know the presence of salt as a problem in agriculture is not limited to that basin so building drainage facilites in a wider project should be a high priority item for study since if they are needed and not provided the result might be increased salinity year on year leading to loss of crop viability....as a possibility.

Chownah

I see and agree with your observations. Also, I feel it a little out of place for the authors having to quote a US government source that is 40 years old. I my experience (farming in a saline threatened area), we have come a full cycle in understanding salinity in agriculture, what was understood, and technologies are now light years ahead of any scientists understanding in 1965.