Corruption surfaces in 2014 project to seal unused artesian wells

[webfact]

Corruption surfaces in 2014 project to seal unused artesian wells



BANGKOK: -- The Office of Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) has detected irregularities among state officials in a 103 million baht project for the sealing of unused artesian wells in 2014 after it received complaints from local people of unusual practices by local officials and contractors in the sealing process.

The project covered work on 4,886 artesian wells all over the country and carried out by the Department of Groundwater Resources.

PACC commissioner Pol Gen Jaramporn Suramanee disclosed the irregularities the commission had found included fake receipts, fake company logos used by state officials to claim budgets.

He said complaints by local people to the PACC also related to substandard materials used in sealing the wells, and improper sealing.

Other forms of corruption have also been uncovered such as irregular procurement and hiring procedures that involved high ranking officials and huge sums of money.

He said so far the probe has covered six provinces in the Northeast, Central and Northern provinces and 20 artesian well projects have been investigated.

All 20 were found to have been inadequately sealed which would have dire consequences as groundwater resources could be contaminated and land surrounding these wells could suffer subsidence as well.

The PACC commissioner cited example of an inspection to a sealed artesian well which was poorly performed.

An instrument check using subterranean wave monitors has shown that the thickness of the underground pipes were extremely thin indicating that the 200 meter deep well was poorly sealed.

He said villagers told the PACC team they saw 3 to 4 Department of Groundwater Resources personnel arriving in a six-wheeled truck to seal the well but what aroused their suspicion was that they saw only very few bags of cement in the truck bed. Furthermore the work was completed in a few minutes.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/content/162649


-- Thai PBS 2016-05-10

[JAG]

No - it cannot be...

[ezzra]

If you were living in a cave for the last 50 years and you read this article on your fist day

out, YOU KNOW that this article is about Thailand, and you be saying to yourself, well,

nothing changed here, all same same.....

[canuckamuck]

Shouldn't they be opening new wells at this time? And why do these wells need to be sealed? What was their purpose originally?

[Emster23]

"the probe has covered six provinces in the Northeast, Central and Northern provinces"

Hmmm anything to do with being redshirt heartland, I wonder? No, of course not.

[bheard]

Corruption surfaces in 2014 project to seal unused artesian wells.

Who'd have expected that? Hard to believe it!

[Bangkok Barry]

Business as usual. But surely Thais would not do such a thing.

[chainarong]

The aquifers of Thailand are under stress, salt and water contamination are a constant problem , these wells were closed because they had pumped the max amount from them , you just can't keep on pumping , so capping them is important mainly to stop free loaders pumping them dry, The water board are now understanding the ramifications of pumping dry , in parts of BKK aquifers now have salt build up, with salt seeping into brick buildings and underground subsidence, BKK to put it bluntly is sinking slowly.......................................

[Robm579]

Well well well.... Who'd have thought it ...

And will there be any consequences ...?

[slapout]

The old timers described a cheap method used to plug a well . Wad up wet burlap and paper sacks

wad into a ball shape and force down the well with a long pipe or stick(5 meter_+) then dump sacks of dry cement

on top of the wet mess and its dry the next day and they say the well was properly plugged.

Paid several thousand baht, invested less than 2000 baht in material they used, time spent on location, about 1 hour

Very profitable work and only found out if someone not involved observes the procedure or the well starts leaking. Which they do but the people involved are long gone from the area and the local officials involved have misplaced documents with names, amount spent, number plugged, etc. It operates the same way as black top road repair /upkeep and is just as well paying.

Requires little up front investment and repaint and change company name every couple years and your set for life with a huge income/profit.

[Srikcir]

Corruption in sealing of 4,886 artesian wells

In January 2016 Suphot Tovichakchaikul, secretary of the National Water Board, comprised of water officials and chaired by PM Prayut decided to drill 4,300 more wells.

So corruption has been almost offset. No harm done.

Unless the new wells were actually unsealing of the existing wells.

[TPUBON]

I'm glad that the villagers noticed what was going on and complained about it. I think the people are finally starting to realize that they can complain about possible irregularities instead of saying nothing I can do. Good for them.