Future water projects to be monitored
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Civil society groups will continue to "doggedly monitor" state water projects and take action against any government that causes problems to the public, an environmental activist who sued the previous premier warned.
Global Warming Association president Srisuwan Junya was speaking after the Supreme Administrative Court rejected his case yesterday. He said the ruling saddened him.
Srisuwan expressed concern over a new draft of the water-management plan, which is a part of the National Council for Peace and Order’s policies.
“If we find that [a project] would lead to environmental damage, rather than benefit from development, we will sue the officials involved. Civil society will dog this issue tenaciously. We will take action against any government that hurts the people.”
The court yesterday dismissed the suit against then-PM Yingluck Shinawatra and three agencies – the National Water and Flood Policy Commission, the Water and Flood Management Commission and the Strategic Committee for Water Resources Management – for alleged negligence over the Bt350-billion water management scheme.
The court reversed a lower court’s ruling, saying that the project was just a draft plan and had not yet been implemented. Therefore, it posed no environmental or health impacts on local residents.
The court also ruled that they had no responsibility to arrange the legal process or make a consideration with the defendants.
In 2013, Srisuwan lodged the petition to the Central Administrative Court, accusing then-prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra and other relevant officials of carrying out plans without first holding public hearings as legally required. He urged the court to block the projects.
The other officials sued were then chairman of Water and Flood Management Committee, Plodprasop Suraswadi, and two other ministers in Yingluck’s government.
In the same year, the court ordered the government must conduct public hearings and environmental and health impact studies before starting any water project.
Under the plan modules, construction of flood-prevention facilities – including 21 dams, floodways and monkey cheeks – is envisaged.
Srisuwan said the verdict would make environmental groups worker harder, adding that they would continue to closely monitor water management projects with every government if they look to cause environmental impacts.
The court also ruled that private companies that undertake water projects in the future must accommodate public participation or the involvement of local people via Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and Environmental Health Impact Assessments (EHIAs). Otherwise, the government in charge of the projects could later turn them down.
The NCPO’s water management draft is making progress after public hearings on water-usage problems were held in September.
If the plan is approved, implementation will start next year.
