Thailand water management policy: Case of the Mekong River Basin Prasopsuk Sungboonmark Auditor Practitioner Level OAG Thailand

Objective To extent that the Thai Government has the policies regarding the Mekong Basin Water Resources Management in compliance with the MRC policy framework.

The Mekong River Commission (MRC) First I will introduce what is the MRC

MRC Established from “the Agreement on the cooperation for the sustainable development of the Mekong River Basin” in 1995 by the Government of the four riparian countries Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam

MRC MRC is the only inter-governmental agency that works directly with the government of the four riparian countries on their common specific interests—joint management of shared water resources and sustainable development of the Mekong River.

MRC To promote and coordinate sustainable management and development of water and related resources for the countries’ mutual benefit and the people’s well being The Objective of the mrc is to promote and coordinate sustainable management and development of water and related resources for the countries’ mutual benefit and the people’s well being.

Nowadays The MRC have 4 Members from the Lower Mekong Basin which are Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam. Currently, the People’s Republic of China and the Union of Myanmar are engaged as MRC Dialogue Partners. Source: http://www.mrcmekong.org

The Basin Development Plan :BDP The BDP is part of the MRC’s commitment to regional cooperation under the 1995 Mekong Agreement, and in particular a response to Article 2 “the formulation of a basin development plan to promote, support, co-operate and co-ordinate in the development of the full potential of sustainable benefits to all riparian States and the prevention of wasteful use of the Mekong River Basin waters” The BDP would be used to identify, categorize and prioritize the projects and programmes to seek assistance for and to implement at the basin level”

The Basin Development Plan :BDP In early 2011 the MRC endorsed the Integrated Water and Related Resources Management (IWRM)-based Basin Development Strategy. The IWRM-based strategy provides regional and transboundary perspectives for basin development planning and creates a transboundary management framework to ensure that nationally planned developments are well coordinated. This is to make sure that the developments sustain and create mutual benefit to the riparian countries and their people. Therefore, The MRC members should make their water management policies to comply with the IWRM-based strategy.

The Basin Development Plan :BDP The formulation of a basin plan is achieved through a seven-stage rolling basin development planning process. The key feature of the process is the inter-play between national and sub-national plans with basin-level opportunities made possible through effective transboundary cooperation. The BDP bring together the interconnection between national and basin planning, bringing together consideration of water and related resources at the sub-basin and national levels in an integrated assessment of commulative impacts of basin-wide development scenarios.

4 BDP Sub areas Kok-Kong (2T) Kong (3T) Chi and Mun (5T) Tonle Sap (9T) โดยในแผนพัฒนาลุ่มน้ำโขงได้มีการแบ่งพื้นที่ลุ่มน้ำสำหรับการจัดทำแผนเป็น 10 พื้นที่ย่อย (Sub–area) (แผนภาพที่ 2) ซึ่งอยู่บนพื้นฐานของลักษณะทางอุทกวิทยาลุ่มน้ำและขอบเขตทางการปกครอง ซึ่งในส่วนของประเทศไทยประกอบด้วย พื้นที่ 2T (ลุ่มน้ำกกและโขงเหนือ) พื้นที่ 3T (ลุ่มน้ำโขงตะวันออกเฉียงเหนือ) พื้นที่ 5T (ลุ่มน้ำชีและลุ่มน้ำมูล) และพื้นที่ 9T (ลุ่มน้ำโตนเลสาบ) ซึ่งการแบ่งพื้นที่ดังกล่าวสอดคล้องกับการแบ่งพื้นที่ลุ่มน้ำหลักของประเทศไทยที่มีการแบ่งเป็น 25 ลุ่มน้ำหลัก The BDP divide mekong basin to 10 sub-area under hydrological areas and country areas. Thailand have 4 sub-area namely กก-โขง โขง ชีแอนมูน แอน โตนเลสาบ Source: http://www.mrcmekong.org

Audit Criteria Legal and Organization framework concerning the action plan implementation is specifically defined. There must be the planning process ensuring that the collaboration with the MRC is appropriately structured. There must be the planning process ensuring that participation from all stakeholders is involved. The action plan gets involved in the budgetary processes in every level of the Government. As discussed above the objective of the audit is to determine that the Thai Government has the policies regarding the Mekong Basin Water resources Management in compliance with the BDP. So we set an audit criteria 4 criteria which are

Audit Methodology Data Collection Data analysis Document Reviews (Gov’t Policies, Laws, Regulations, Annual Budget Document, etc.) Interviews The Secretariat of National Water Resources Committee The Secretariat of Thai National Mekong Committee The head of the water resources regional office River Basin Committee (RBC) Questionnaires Data analysis Many tools for data collecting and information both primary data and secondary data were used as follows; Document Reviews; all data and information about Thailand water management policies were reviewed such as government policies, laws, regulations, annual budget document, etc. Interviews; we use an In-depth interview to the executives, authorities, and officers, whose work concerned to the responsibility in water management policies from relevant agencies as Department of Water Resources ,The Secretariat of National water resources committee ,the Secretariat of Thai National Mekong Committee), Water resources management organization such as the River basin committee We Questionnaire; the questionnaire was designed by the audit team for the executives, authorities, and officers who participated in group discussion to know

Audit findings Researchable Questions Whether Thai government has the clear water resources management policies on the Mekong Basin or not? Whether the concerned organizations have the integrated water resources management in line with the BDP’s process or not? Whether Thailand’s Mekong Basin water management plan conform with the BDP? To finding the audit results. we use 3 main questions to determine that whether or not the water resources planning regarding the Mekong Basin is in line with the MRC water management plans? First, Does Thai government has the clear water resources management policies on the Mekong Basin? Second, Do the concerned organizations have the integrated water resources management in line with the BDP’s process Lastly, Is Thailand’s Mekong Basin water management plan conform with the BDP?

Thailand already has the national water management policies Whether Thai government has the clear water resources management policies on the Mekong Basin or not? Thailand already has the national water management policies The National Economic and Social Development Plan (NESDP) The office of Prime Minister’s regulation on the National Water Resources Management, B.E. 2532 The National Water Resources Management Plan However, they do not have the specific plan or specific policy for the Mekong Basin For the first question, we found that Thailand already have the clear national water resources management policies we have the national water resources management plan. We have already the regulation to promote national water resources management such as. The 2007 national water resources management regulation. However, we have the clear national water management policies but we have not the specific plan or policy for the mekong basin

Whether the concerned organizations have the integrated water resources management in line with the BDP’s process or not? Thailand have an organization structure on the water resources management The National Water Resources Committee (NWRC) River Basin Committee (RBC) Working groups under the RBC such as the Sub-basin Working groups The BDP coordination working group For the second question, Thailand also have the structure of the water resources management organization. Under the national water resources management regulations. It has the National Water Resources Committee and 25 RBC. The regulation assign Each of the RBC create subcommittee or working group such as the Sub-basin Subcommittee. For the RBC that involve with the Mekong Basin. They should create another working group it called “The BDP coordination working group”

BDP Organizations The Cabinet MRC Council Thai National Mekong Committee Secretariat: TNMCs Development Partners and Cooperating Institutions The National Water Resources Committee The Joint Committee DG of DWR (secretariat) The River Basin Committee Consultative Groups The MRC Secretariat This Figure show the link between Thailand national water resources organizations and the MRC. You can found that under the RBC they have subcommittee 3 box on the left hand side show a general subcommittee of the RBC. And the BLUE box is The BDP coordination working group. Only the RBC that involve with the Mekong Basin have this group. Mission of this group is to coordinates between the RBC and the MRC. Planning WG Sub-basin WG WG on Public Relations BDP WG WG 2T’s sub area WG 3T’s sub area WG 5T’s sub area Source: http://www.dwr.go.th

Many RBC cannot create Sub-basin Working Group completely Whether the concerned organizations have the integrated water resources management in line with the BDP’s process or not? Many RBC cannot create Sub-basin Working Group completely the BDP coordination working group have never been work and 2 RBCs have not created this group Although in the context of the organization structure, Thailand have already an organization structure on the water resources management. But we found that Many RBC cannot create Sub-basin Subcommittees completely. For the RBC that involve with the Mekong Basin we found that 2 RBC have not create the BDP coordination working group. And the Other that already create it have never been work. Moreover, we found that The NWRC and the RBC hardly apply the MRC policy to make the water resources management plan on the basin and the national level

Whether Thailand’s Mekong Basin water management plan conform with the BDP? The NWRC and the RBC hardly apply the MRC policy to make the water resources management plan on the basin level and the national level The projects proposed by the RBC have the less proportion of all approved projects Most of the approved projects are proposed by the central government

Conclusions Although Thailand have clearly the water resources management policies and appropriately the water organization structure in line with the BDP. But they do not have the specific plan or the specific policy for the Mekong Basin The concerned organizations did not have the integrated water resources management in line with the BDP’s process It means that Thai government cannot integrate the water resources management in the Mekong Basin in line with the BDP. Although Thailand have clearly water resources management policy and appropriate water organization structure in line with the MRC. But we have not the specific plan or policy for the Mekong Basin the concerned organizations have not the integrated water resources management in line with the BDP’s process

Thank You