Remove barriers to local firms, govt told

The Engineering Institute of Thailand (EIT) and allies called on the government yesterday to eliminate obstacles for local firms and civic groups to join major water management and construction projects, worth about Bt350 billion.
The move came after the stateappointed commission tasked with water and flood management, chaired by Science and Technology Minister Plodprasob Surassawadee, organised a meeting last week to explain the terms of reference (ToR) under Thai law for the mega water projects, as well as guidelines for bidders submitting plans.
Some 942 representatives from 398 companies, embassies and state agencies attended. People from 303 local companies went, along with representatives of about 37 foreign firms.
The guidelines set out the qualifications for companies that want to submit conceptual plans, saying that these firms must have experience over the past decade in designing and building water resource projects to alleviate flooding and drought.
The projects are valued at Bt30 billion or more each. Firms whose experience does not match the qualification criteria could join with the other eligible groups to propose conceptual plans to the commission, the panel said.
EIT president Suwat Chaopricha said the criteria blocked local firms and other stakeholders, such as Thai engineers from proposing ideas or proposing conceptual plans to develop water and flood management projects. So, the government should review its guidelines and allow stakeholders to “brainstorm” and propose ideas to resolve and manage water and flood problems in country.
“We do not oppose the government’s plan to resolve water and flood problems in the long term but we want the government to do the right thing,” he said.
Suwat was speaking at a meeting with its networks, including the Council of Engineers, Thai Hydra Association, Deans of Engineering Council of Thailand, the Consulting Engineers Association of Thailand, the Tha Chin River Basin Council and Network of People Living in 8 provinces along the Mekong River.
Yesterday’s meeting was hosted by EIT to get opinions from veteran engineers and water experts on the ToR of government water and flood management projects.
Suwat said a General Engineering and Steering Committee (GESC), comprised of hydrological engineers, should be set up to control the whole system. This committee could also be told to collect and screen all ideas to improve the master plan that follows the ToR. It could distribute the plan to other related agencies to speed up the work.
The government should study, design and build, respectively, after it has the water and flood master plan, he suggested.
Chalong Kerdpitak, from the Council of Engineers, said the government should also resolve water and flood problems by using nonstructural measures, such as increasing the capacity of two big existing dams –the Bhumibol and Sirikrit dams – so they can retain more water.
Chaowalit Chantararat, the managing director of Team Group, said there was no median price for the mega construction plan and the terms (ToR) lacked construction specification details.
Aphichat Sramoon, secretary general of the Consulting Engineers Association of Thailand, said a lot of projects under the water and flood management plan had still not conducted any environmental impact assessment (EIA) reports. So, it would be impossible for these mega projects to be implemented within the next five years.