Water is precious – Bt50-bn canal project treats it as waste 

I was interested to read that Bt50 billion is to be spent on canal projects designed to facilitate water drainage. But may I remind Prime Minister Prayut that water is a prestigious resource – not waste that we have to eliminate quickly to solve the flood problem.
Our great kings Rama IV and Rama V built an extensive network of canals that collected our water for agriculture and other uses before it flowed south into the Gulf of Thailand. This precious infrastructure helped keep our country fertile and also meant we rarely suffered floods. But this canal system has been neglected over the past few decades resulting in a huge loss of water-storage capacity. 
To manage our water properly we must restore our canal system to its former glories so we can once again retain this precious resource before it flows to the sea. The solution certainly does not lie in building a huge “express canal” to quickly drain water into the sea.
Prasan Stianrapapongs
Pattaya