Thailand's mega-water management scheme may be scraped

BANGKOK, June 11 (TNA) - The Engineering Institute of Thailand (EIT) has proposed that a 350-billion-baht water management scheme of the previous government of former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra be scraped. EIT academics told a discussion with representatives of the private sector and the civil sector in Bangkok on Wednesday that all water management modules, planned under the multi-billion-baht scheme, should be called off, pointing out, as an example, that the A5 Module of a floodway to the west of the Chao Phraya River is absolutely impossible regarding engineering principles. The EIT said it will repeat its call for the army-led National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to scrap the 350-billion-baht water management scheme. The EIT also urged for the disbandment of the Office of the National Water and Flood Management Policy, reasoning that it centralized authority on water management and intervened in the work of relevant agencies without proper knowledge. EIT academics recommended that Thailand carefully plan national water management, and that a master plan for water management in the Chao Phraya River Basin be worked out soon, cultivation be properly scheduled to reduce drought, a shortcut of the Chao Phraya River be built from Bang Ban District to Bang Sai District in the central Ayutthaya Province to increase its drainage capacity and the NCPO quickly pass a water resources law. (TNA)