Govt seeks court nod for water plan

The government, struggling to push forward its water-management and flood-prevention mega-project, has filed an appeal with the Supreme Administrative Court, asking it to give the green light for its ambitious plans.

It was disclosed yesterday that Deputy Prime Minister Phongthep Thepkanjana had filed an appeal on Thursday evening, asking the high court to revise a Central Administrative Court verdict. The lower court previously had ordered the government to conduct public hearings, environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and environmental and health impact assessments (EHIAs) for the Bt350-billion water schemes, which are divided into nine modules.

“The government has decided to file an appeal to the high court for all points” of the lower court’s ruling, Pongthep said, adding that regardless of whether the court decided to accept the appeal, he believed the mega-project would not be discontinued.

“Although we disagree with the Central Administrative Court, and the verdict has still not been implemented, we are now studying how to make the mega-projects comply with the law and the verdict,” he said.

However, he added that if the Supreme Administrative Court accepted the government’s appeal, he would inform the court about the official documents that the government had used to process the water- and flood-management programme.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi, who chairs the Water and Flood Management Commission, has insisted that the government will conduct public hearings and impact assessments before it signs contracts with the successful bidders. The public-hearing process will commence by the middle of next month in 39 provinces in the Central region, he said, adding that the government expects to spend three months listening to the people’s voices. 

Previously, Stop Global Warming Association (SGWA) president Srisuwan Janya filed an appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court, requesting that it halt the government’s mega-scheme.

The Central Administrative Court has ruled that the government project needs to be put on hold until all legal requirements, such as public hearings, EIAs and EHIAs, are met. 

The SGWA’s latest move came after it found evidence that the mega-project had not complied with legal procedures and violated the Constitution’s Articles 57(2) and 67(2), which require the government to conduct public hearings and impact assessments for projects deemed possibly harmful to the environment and local people’s livelihoods. 

Initially, the association had filed a lawsuit with the Central Administrative Court, asking it to withdraw the government’s Bt350-billion project, but the court’s June 27 ruling only ordered the government to conduct public hearings and impact assessments and to involve the public. “The government has the right to file an appeal to the court, but it cannot go ahead with the plan or sign contracts with the bidders unless it has conducted public hearings, EIAs and EHIAs,” Srisuwan said.

He insisted that if the Supreme Court ruled that the mega-project had to be withdrawn, then the authorities would have no choice but to start the process again by holding public hearings, collecting public opinion about the programme and conducting impact assessments.

In a related development, the People’s Radio Network for Democracy yesterday stormed the Central Administrative Court and called for the judges who issued the verdict ordering the government to conduct public hearings and impact assessments to apologise to the public.

The organisation’s spokesman, Sorarak Mailaithong, said the network wanted the judges to apologise to the people, because renewed flooding had already affected Chanthaburi province.

He said he also wanted Srisuwan to apologise to the public, as he had filed the lawsuit.