Lack of proper initiatives to protect the environment
The surging cost of dealing with the flooding and the small budgets spent in the past on environmental protection suggest that policy-makers are poorly prepared to cope with the impact of climate change.
The Abhisit Vejjajiva government spent about Bt50 billion to compensate flood victims. That included the cost of home and road repairs, Satit Wongnongtoey, former PM Office's minister, said last week.
The past government had to deal with three major floods in the third and fourth quarters of last year and in April this year. About 1.4 million flood-affected families received compensation from the government.
Former finance minister Korn Chatikavanij has condemned the current government for reacting slowly to the current flood crisis. Many farmers have complained to his Democrat Party and pleaded for the revival of its income-guarantee scheme.
The current government should employ the income-guarantee database created by the last government and pay compensation accordingly. This may be done under another name, not necessarily as the income guarantee scheme, if the government fears losing face, Korn said.
The Yingluck government has blamed the past government for almost depleting the emergency fund, leaving only Bt2 billion for the current government.
Looking back five years, the past governments spent little on natural resource rehabilitation, such as reforestation, water management and the protection of national reserves, suggesting poor planning to tackle the global warming issue.
According to the annual budget compiled by the Budget Bureau, disbursements to protect and rehabilitate natural resources were high in the early years then dropped in the later years.
This suggests that attention was paid to the issue only in the first year of the five-year 10th National Economic and Social Development Plan.
The environment fund was set at Bt47.22 billion for the 2007 fiscal year, representing 3 per cent of the total budget. In fiscal 2008, the fund was Bt50.74 billion, or 3.1 per cent of the annual budget. But, the ratio fell to 1.7 per cent in 2009 with Bt31.79 billion budgeted.
The ratio still remained low at 1.8 per cent in 2010 and 2011 with Bt30.51 billion and Bt36.99 billion respectively.
Funds earmarked for emergency purposes also indicate that more money needs to be allocated to deal with national disasters, such as flooding and drought. Emergency funds total Bt47.6 billion in the current 2011 fiscal year, up from Bt38.33 billion in the previous year.
For the next fiscal budget, which is being prepared by the new government, at least Bt60 billion is expected to be spent
for water management and natural environmental protection. And the government may also spend no less than the amount spent by the previous government on emergencies, or about Bt50 billion or more to deal with natural disasters.
