PM supports retention areas, walls and dykes

• Published: 18/02/2012 at 03:35 AM
• Newspaper section: NewsBangkokPost

The government has approved an additional budget of 5 billion baht to implement 117 urgent water management projects ranging from upstream to downstream areas, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said yesterday.

The projects were proposed during the prime minister's one-week tour of flood-prone provinces to ensure the effectiveness of flood-prevention measures this year.

The cabinet will be asked on Tuesday to approve the special budget for the urgent projects.

The projects include the construction of kaem ling (monkey cheek) water retention areas, floodwalls and dykes to prevent floods from inundating important areas, particularly economic zones and industrial estates, Ms Yingluck said.

She said the government wants about 2 million rai of fields in the Central Plain to be reserved as monkey cheek areas to retain 5 billion cubic metres of floodwater. So far, the government has been able to allocate 1.5 million rai for this purpose - 500,000 rai in Nakhon Sawan and 1 million rai in the lower Central region, including Bang Ban district of Ayutthaya.

Ms Yingluck said she and the other ministers involved will closely follow the progress of the projects and update the public regularly.

She thanked all state offices, ministries, provincial governors and Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra for cooperating fully with the government, and especially those people who sacrificed their land for use as monkey cheek areas.

Asked whether manufacturers affected by last year's floods had decided to keep their production bases in Thailand, Ms Yingluck said they had confirmed that they would.

She said the Japan International Cooperation Agency would provide both financial and technical assistance for the government's water management plans. Ms Yingluck will visit Japan next month.

Meanwhile, Democrat Party MP for Phatthalung Naris Khamnurak, also the chair of the House panel on land, natural resources and the environment, said yesterday the government might violate the charter if it implemented a floodway project right away without an environmental impact assessment.

He cited Section 67 of the constitution, which requires any project or activity that may have serious impacts on communities and the environment to undergo such an assessment by an independent organisation on the environment and natural resources, as well as public hearings.

Mr Naris said the government has a plan to build a 180-metre-wide and 100-kilometre-long canal from Ayutthaya to Samut Prakan to function as a floodway to protect provinces in the lower Central Plains, including Bangkok.

Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said the government should guarantee fair compensation for people who stand to be affected by the water retention area plan.

Meanwhile, Bancha Pong-ayukul, chair of the Senate committee on agriculture and cooperatives, suggested the government go ahead and build the controversial Kaeng Sua Ten dam in Phrae which would allow for better water management in the Yom River basin.