Rapid Assessment for Resilient Recovery and ... - GFDRR

mechanism to connect the new RBC mechanism with the budgeting process. Lack of
political drive and administrative mechanism for the RBCs makes this difficult.
Experience in other countries suggests that effective water legislation should clarify
the entitlement and responsibilities of water users and water providers; define roles
of the government in relation to other stakeholders; formalize the transfer of water;
ensure the sustainable use of water resources and water values; and provide
legal status of water management institutions, including government and water user
groups. Basin development plans have been established for the 25 basins, but due to
the lack of budget and disagreement with communities, most of the plans have not
been implemented. Integrated budget planning for water resources is being applied,
but the budget on water resources management has been fluctuating. Although local
government budgets can be another source of support to integrated water resources
management, there have not been substantial initiatives at the local level. It is
important to also mention the King’s projects, which pre-dates the adoption of IWRM
in Thailand and whose experience offers seminal lessons. During the past 40 years, a
number of royal projects have been initiated and implemented all over Thailand, with
underlying principle very much applicable to IWRM initiatives.
Existing Water Laws
Thailand has many waterrelated laws (Table 1, page 48), administered by over 30
departments overseeing water issues in eight ministries (Table 2). Like water policies,
the mass of water laws, codes, and instructions have all been framed for particular
and usually singular purposes. There is no umbrella legislation to link these laws
and codes, and consequently there is no legislative backing for any organisation
to undertake integrated water resource management. In practice, this results in the
relationships among all agencies being ad hoc and often erratic. While many of the
agencies are involved in managing the delivery of water to water users, there is no
single agency that has overall responsibility for managing water resources in an integrated
and comprehensive manner. The absence of a modern, comprehensive water
resources law is probably the most significant factor inhibiting good integrated water
resources management in Thailand.
Draft Water Resources Law
The inadequacies indicated above in the many water related laws in Thailand have
led to the drafting of a new more comprehensive and integrated Water Bill. However,
the draft Water Bill does not provide a suitable basis for promoting good IWRM, nor
a comprehensive approach to river basin management nor an adequate mandate for
any agency to be the national water resource manager.
Despite the lack of an overarching water law, there are opportunities to move IWRM
forward by building on existing institutional and human capital. In Thailand, there are
extensive experiences and lessons learnt from medium - large scale development
of water resources storage, infrastructure that is under the responsibility of agencies
as well as from small scale structures (mostly in upper watershed areas) that are
built through the cooperation of agencies, local communities, the private sector and,
most importantly, from the King projects. This institutional and human capital should
be treated as a valuable asset for the sector which together with the government
decentralization process and water resources management could render the country
benefits and minimize adverse impacts to individuals and local communities.
A-38 THAI FLOOD 2011 RAPID ASSESSMENT FOR RESILIENT RECOVERY AND RECONSTRUCTION PLANNING