Govt to collect public opinions on water scheme

A nationwide public hearing on the government’s mega water-management and flood-prevention project will kick off next month in the 39 provinces that will be affected by the construction work, Deputy Prime Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi said yesterday.
Separately, an exhibition is being organised at Bangkok’s Siam Discovery Centre to display the project’s pros and cons.
The government agreed to hold public hearings after a Central Administrative Court order in June telling the authorities to comply with the Constitution, seek public opinion and conduct environmental and health impact assessments before going ahead with its plan to run the mega-project. The project is expected to take up to five years.
According to Plodprasop, who chairs the Water and Flood Management Commission, the public hearings – which will start from October 7 – should take about four months to complete. The public hearings, to be organised by the Interior Ministry, will also provide information on the pros and cons of the construction projects under the nine modules.
Plodprasop said he expected more than 100,000 people, especially those living in affected areas, to join the hearings, adding that their opinions would be studied before the government goes ahead with the construction. “Adjustments will be made according to their opinions and concerns,” he said.
In a related development, the Office of National Water and Flood Management Policy is holding an exhibition titled “Water for Life” at the Siam Discovery Centre to explain how the water-management and flood-prevention scheme will work. The exhibition runs until next Thursday.

Meanwhile, Srisuwan Janya, president of Stop Global Warming Association, has issued a statement opposing the government’s plan to launch public hearings, saying it was a false event and did not comply with the court’s orders.
He said that instead of getting members of the public to criticise each module under the scheme, the government should instead put the master plan of water-resource management up for discussion.
He said that once the government has collected opinions about the master plan, then it could designate each module for construction and management.
“If government goes ahead with the public hearings, I will file another lawsuit in court,” he warned.
Separately, Plodprasop said the first project under the Bt350-billion water-management scheme will most probably be the construction of a massive waterway on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya River, as the Constitution does not require this part of the project to undergo public hearings and environmental and health assessments.