Revision as of 21:44, 10 May 2014

Summary

The Chao Phraya River Basin (“the basin”) is the largest river basin of the Kingdom of Thailand and plays a significant role in terms of agricultural, industrial and economic development. In recent years, there has been a series of extreme drought and flooding that increasingly challenge the management of the entire basin. For example, the major flood in 2011 has set a new precedent in terms of scale and scope of the issues at hand. As a consequence, one should wonder if and how 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 the middle basin and 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 an agreement, the management must continually learn and adapt to emerging incidents and situations, and set priorities 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 a nonpartisan, impartial and fact-based platform. The management should also consider the 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. The discussion comprises nine sections.

The case first outlines the importance of the basin and implications in natural/environmental, policy and political terms (Section 2). A brief description of the basin history (Section 3) and stakeholders (Section 4) renders a discussion basis of the integrated management and challenges in two senses: a conventional view encompassing seasonal challenges such as drought and flood control (Section 5) and an emerging view with extreme conditions since 2011 (Section 6). Focusing on the latter circumstance, the depth of the discussion is extended to emerging challenges as a consequence of the increasing extremity likelihood (Section 7). Resolutions in response consist of the Master Plan (Section 8) and a complementary analysis in the sense of the Water Diplomacy Framework (Section 9).

Natural, Historic, Economic, Regional, and Political Framework

The Chao Phraya River, together with the Mekong River, is the most important river in Thailand, as the entire river stretches across a significant amount of area: from the upper basin via its tributaries in the northern part of Thailand, to the middle basin where the confluence of Ping and Nan Rivers, the two major tributaries, is located, and flows southward to the delta into the Gulf of Thailand. The entire area is denoted as the Chao Phraya River Basin.

Significance of the Chao Phraya River Basin

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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 assumes a primary authority of the basin management. 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 five 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, and implies a need to increase the amount of water supply to 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, increase in water demands is anticipated;

• Dams: implies the management of an interdependence of hydropower generative sources and flood control via water release management, primarily at the Bhumibol and Sirikit dams (see Exhibits 3 and 4) that control over one-fifth of the basin annual runoffs combined. Control of these dams therefore plays a major role in regulating water supply in the middle basin and the delta area;

• Environment and cultural heritages: the basin, particularly in the upstream areas, is Thailand’s primary natural habitat of wildlife in a large natural preservation region. It is also home to the roots of Thailand’s cultural development since over 700 years ago.

Since the turn of the century, the basin confronts a critical situation to preserve the sustainability of the basin, in terms of:

• Matching the growing aggregate demand from the agricultural, industrial and urban uses with the limited supply; and • Managing the increasing predictability of seasonal precipitation, impacting particularly rain distribution and variation, in every single year and between consecutive 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 economic output from the agricultural and industrial to the service sectors; sources of employment, and implication of cultural heritage and communities; and urban area growth.

Evolution of the Basin Significance

The Chao Phraya River, together with the Mekong River, is the most important river in Thailand, as the entire river stretches across a significant amount of area: from the upper basin via its tributaries in the northern part of Thailand, to the middle basin where the confluence of Ping and Nan Rivers, the two major tributaries, is located, and flows southward to the delta into the Gulf of Thailand. The entire area is denoted as the Chao Phraya River Basin.

The Chao Phraya River Basin is rich in the history of Thailand, dating back to the Sukhothai (700 years ago), Ayutthaya (500 years ago) and Thonburi (250 years ago) Kingdoms. Cultural, social and political developments of Thailand over the years have transformed the basin, and the basin inherited significant endowments in terms of population settlements; the basin also preserved the traditional and cultural heritage that are still present in Thailand and the Thai culture today.

Nowadays, the basin is home to approximately 40% of the country’s population, with farmers as the majority in the upcountry and urban dwellers in Bangkok and other big cities in the basin such as Chiang Mai, Ayutthaya and Nonthaburi. With significant agricultural development since the middle of last century, water irrigation and related infrastructure developments such as dams and reservoirs have been constructed to increase the scale, scope and efficiency particularly to develop all-year agricultural activities. The rationale is: with preserved water supply by the dams, additional water-intensive agriculture can be developed in the dry season, rendering a positive impact in the sense of economic, trade and labor policies.

Together with the growing demand for electricity, driven by economic advances, large dams were constructed to serve both agricultural and hydropower generative ends. In particular, the Bhumibol dam (749 MW) on the Ping River and the Sirikit dam (500 MW) on the Nan River together control over one-fifth of the basin annual runoffs combined. Control of these dams therefore plays a major role in regulating water supply in the middle basin and the delta area.

In addition, it is also intended that the dams would assume additional functions, such as management of saline incursion, especially during the dry season when there is salt water intrusion from the Gulf of Thailand to the agricultural areas in the delta and middle basin; flood mitigation by limiting runoffs from the dams during the monsoons; and preservation of natural ecosystem in the upstream reservoirs and promotion of tourism.

Issues and Stakeholders

• Royal Irrigation Department (“RID”): a state department with responsibilities to provide all water supplies for irrigation throughout the year. Agriculture is the major concern. See Exhibits 5a and 5b for a description of the organizational strategic responsibilities.

• Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (“EGAT”): a state enterprise that manages the majority of Thailand's electricity generation capacity. In this case, it operates dams to generate and stabilize the hydropower as a base load. However, owing to a broader and stronger energy mix in the recent decades, it becomes less dependent on the basin resources.

• Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (“BMA”): manages the urban city and maintains the integrity of water supply and flood protection in the Bangkok Metropolitan Area, together with the Metropolitan Waterworks Authority (“MWA”).

• Government of Thailand : the executive administration under the constitutional monarchy of the Kingdom of Thailand. It is responsible for the overall management of the water supply (i.e., manage, control and promote efficient use of water for agricultural, industrial, power generation and urban uses toward self-sufficiency). It established the Flood Relief Operation Center (“FROC”) during the major flooding in 2011.

• Provincial Waterworks Authority (“PWA”): a state department that provides water services in the Kingdom of Thailand, except for the Bangkok Metropolitan Area.

• Thailand Board of Investment (“BOI”): a governmental agency that promotes investment in Thailand and maintains contacts and relationship with foreign investors in Thailand.

• National Economic and Social Development Board (“NESDB”): a special governmental agency with responsibilities to formulate and develop national strategies that alleviate poverty and income distribution, enhance competitiveness, and promote social capital development and sustainable development.

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)