Revision as of 20:18, 30 April 2014

Summary

The Chao Phraya River Basin (“the basin”) is the largest river basin of the Kingdom of Thailand and plays a significance role in terms of agricultural, industrial and economic development. In recent years have witnessed a series of extreme drought and flooding that increasingly challenges the management of the entire basin. An example of the major flood in 2011 sets a new precedent in terms of scale and scope of the issues at hand. As a consequence, one should wonder if the current assumptions and implications underlying the current practice should be reassessed. Considering the Water Diplomacy Framework, the management of the basin could be assessed and improved in a number of following ways.

First, it is vital to recognize growing uncertainty of the water resources in the basin, particularly under the ongoing climate-change circumstance. This concern applies not only to the precipitation and runoff prediction, but also to the definition of zones of complexity of shared interests, particularly in medium basin and in the delta. Second, the resolution addressing the current conflict would have a chance to succeed once all parties participate in the joint fact-finding process, engage in a value-creation process and commit to the consequent agreements. Third, even after with an agreement, the management must continually learn and adapt to emerging incidents and situation, and set priority toward cumulative benefit not only for one specific party or group of interest, but rather for the entire basin.

As a consequence, the policy and politics of the Chao Phraya River Basin management should operate on the nonpartisan, impartial and fact-based basis, also consider the interrelated assumptions of integrated management that should respect dynamics and limited predictability of the resources, diverse interests of people and the communities, and the interdependence of economic, societal, policy and political dimensions of the commitments and consequences from prior and current decisions.

Natural, Historic, Economic, Regional, and Political Framework

Significance of the Chao Phraya River Basin'

The Chao Phraya River Basin (see Exhibit 1) is the largest river basin of the Kingdom of Thailand. Since it has no transnational boundaries, the Government of Thailand is the sole responsible authority of the basin. From Thailand’s perspective, the basin not only represents a substantial geographical area inhabited by approximately 40% of the country’s population, it is arguably the most important river basin at least in four terms:

• Irrigation: the basin supplies water to the country’s largest agricultural systems, which represent the principal proportion of the nation’s entire workforces, and is naturally home to traditions and cultural heritages;
• Industrial use: the basin is domiciled to a host of emerging manufacturing factories ranging from automobile to electronic and chemical sectors. The industry represents a lion’s share of Thailand’s economic output with strong growth prospect going forward. Such implies an increasing amount of water supply support the industries;
• Urban water supply: the basin provides the largest proportion of water supply in Bangkok, the capital city (see Exhibit 2), and the Upper Ping Basin, including Chiang Mai, the second largest city. With a projected growing population density, growth in water demands is anticipated;
• Interdependence of hydropower generative sources and flood control, primarily via water release management at the Bhumibol and Sirikit dams (see Exhibits 3 and 4) that control over one-fifth of the basin annual runoffs combined, therefore de facto playing a major role in water supply of the medium basin and the delta area.

Since the turn of the century the basin confronts a critical situation to preserve the sustainability of the basin, that is, to (a) matching the growing aggregate demand from the agricultural, industrial and urban uses with the limited supply; and (b) efficiently managing the growing distortion and less predictability of seasonal precipitation, in terms of rain distribution and variation, throughout a single year and also between years.

This situation threatens not only the region, but also the entire country, because of the basin’s contribution relative to the nationwide level in terms of (a) economic output from the agricultural and industrial to the service sectors; (b) sources of employment, and implication of cultural heritage and communities; and (c) urban area growth.

Analysis, Synthesis, and Insight

ASI:Discussion: Ongoing Challenges After the Major Flooding in 2011

As a result, the basin needs to cope with additional dimensions of the challenges:

• City management to mitigate risks of extreme events, eg, severe flooding, salinity incursion
• Balance of upstream and downstream resources, considering technical, societal & political aspects
• Industrial area protection to minimise risks from direct impact and manage investor’s confidence
• Trust in the management of the administration(read the full article... )

Contributed by: Siripong (Pong) Treetasanatavorn (last edit: 11 May 2014)

ASI:Water Diplomacy Development in the Chao Phraya River Basin

Diplomacy Development Cornerstones:

• Define long-term engagement objectives: people
• Recognise the challenges: management of uncertainties
• Focus on consensus building & adaptive learning
• Strike a balance between preserving natural resources and managing the short-term practicality(read the full article... )

Contributed by: Siripong (Pong) Treetasanatavorn (last edit: 11 May 2014)

Tagged with: Thailand, Bangkok