Asia-Pacific Water Summit Must Give Region Workable Plans Of Action: Thai Editorial

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EDITORIAL
Summit must give region workable plans of action
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Can this week's water resources and crisis prevention meeting in Chiang Mai come up with tangible solutions and not just hot air?

This week Thailand will host the second Asia-Pacific Water Summit in Chiang Mai. The purpose of the summit is to highlight the importance of regional water management, but the Cabinet's ideas on this subject are neither clear nor practical enough to enable Thailand to take a leading regional role.

Leaders from 50 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, environmental ministers, financing and planning ministers and officials and executives of international and private-sector organisations have been invited to attend the forum from Thursday through Monday to discuss important issues on water-resource management, disaster prevention and crisis resolution.

Participants will talk and share views on economic, food and water security; urban water security; environmental water security; household water security; water risks and resilience; and water-related disaster challenges.

The meeting will conclude with a "Chiang Mai Declaration" intended to demonstrate the leaders' commitment to handling one of the most important issues facing the world today.

Southeast Asia has often faced severe water crises, including drought, flooding and environmental damage from water-management projects themselves. The current multi-billion-baht government-initiated water management project is problematic. Projects on the mekong River to generate electricity, as well as Thai-invested projects on Myanmar's Salaween River, pose serious environmental and social risks to riparian communities. One urgent question is how the concerned countries can end disputes over development on the Mekong, in particular the controversial Xayaburi dam in Laos.

These kinds of issues must be addressed at international summits on water management. Indeed, these meetings offer an ideal opportunity to seek valid solutions through international cooperation.

However, Deputy Prime Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi, who is chair of the grand committee for the forum, is likely to pay attention to ceremony rather than content or the commitment of the participants to tackle the serious issues on the table before them.

The primary themes of the summit are leadership and commitment in handling water security and water-related disasters. But preparations for the summit in recent months have failed to inform the public about what is to be discussed in particular and what kind of solutions the leaders are looking for.

What the Thai Cabinet wants to do during the forum is to present the royal initiatives of His Majesty the King as "best practice" for sustainable water-resources management.

The government will also take the opportunity to present to the world the importance of Thailand's role in regional water management. It's a good chance to promote tourism too, as well as Thailand's bid to host the nearly dead Asia Cooperation Dialogue in 2015 in Chiang Mai.

It is certainly not wrong to showcase His Majesty's projects as examples of efficient water management in this country, but that is not enough to deal with the kind of natural disasters we are likely to face in the future.

Water management and environmental disasters are serious issues all over this region, affecting the lives of millions of people. Measures to effectively manage them require strong commitment, knowledge and massive financial resources.

At their first summit in Japan in 2007, leaders discussed and learned a lot about handling water-related crises. This is not just a time to simply talk up unrealistic plans and ideas. It must be a time for cooperation and effective action.


-- The Nation 2013-05-14

[francescoassisi]

K. Plodprasop It seems is fast becoming the nemisis of all things ecological in Thailand. His autocratic, top-down approach is becoming increasingly criticised (even unconstitutional?).

Now he has threatened to have anyone who protests at the conference arrested.

[francescoassisi]

Can anyone tell me what happened about the charges against him concerning the permission of the export of 100 tigers?

[allan michaud]

"It is certainly not wrong to showcase His Majesty's projects as examples
of efficient water management in this country, but that is not enough
to deal with the kind of natural disasters we are likely to face in the
future."

Surely this is suggesting the Kings idea was not perfect... Less Majeste! String him up for suggesting such a thing.

It would be nice to think the Mekong basin countries could agree something sensible, like no dams ont he mainstream Mekong or ones such as the Lower Sesan 2 in Cambodia, which will cut off a major tributary. However as it seems most of the planned mega dams are just ways to line powerful peoples pockets across the region I don't hold out much hope.