Public hearings planned on Thailand's water management

[webfact]

Public hearings planned on water management
By Digital Content



BANGKOK, Aug 18 -- The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives through its water development and management sub-committee will hold public hearings in the North, the Central Plain and the East to gather information to write a new water management plan that emphasizes public participation.

The new plan will be submitted to the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) in early October.

The sub-committee discussed the organization of the public hearings with local irrigation officials.

In the North, the public hearings will take place in Chiang Mai on Sept 8 and in Phitsanulok on Sept 9. In the Central Plain they are set in Ayutthaya on Sept 10 and in Phetchaburi on Sept 11.

In the East, a public hearing will be held in Rayong on Sept 12.

Lersak Rewtarkulpaiboon, deputy permanent secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, said that the public hearings would take about a month and focus on gathering problems, limitations and solutions from concerned people.

The information will be used to design the water management plan of the sub-committee.

The plan will reflect rough water management for river basins in the Central Plain, the North and the East that will serve the public's needs. Afterwards projects will be designed to meet local demands.

This will be different from the past when projects were designed before public hearings.

That caused misunderstanding and blocked the implementation of many projects.

The new approach is believed to convince local people to support many projects of the Royal Irrigation Department because they will have their say.

The plan to be developed from the public hearings will be reported to the main water management committee headed by Gen Chatchai Sarikalaya, deputy NCPO chief supervising economic affairs.

The plan will then be integrated with plans of four other sub-committees to make a master plan for national water management. (MCOT online news)


-- TNA 2014-08-19

[Chris Lawrence]

What about all the work done in 2006/07?

Consultation is great, but what affect does the mitigation have down stream?

Is this another brilliant PR exercise?