New Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has to get points for boldness in the announcement of two megaprojects totalling 500 billion baht in the opening days of his term, but his scores for judgement are looking much worse.
There can be little argument with the proposal to complete the extension of Bangkok's elevated rail system within three years. This comes as no surprise, since promotion of the city's mass transit system was also a priority of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is claimed to be pulling the strings behind Mr Samak's People Power party.
But one has to wonder if PM Samak consulted Mr Thaksin or anyone else before hitting upon his second proposal: to divert water from the Mekong River to irrigate the thirsty Northeast. The diversion scheme would transport water via underground tunnels to reservoirs in Loei and Udon Thani provinces, from where it would then be distributed throughout the Northeast.
Such a scheme has been considered in the past. Veera Wongsaengnak, deputy chief of the Irrigation Department, said the department had conducted a study on the feasibility of diverting Mekong River water to the Northeast ''years ago'', but had concluded that, while technically possible, it was not economically viable. In short, Mr Veera suggested there were cheaper alternatives that would be more effective in solving water shortages in the Isan region.
He also pointed out that such a project would be significantly complicated by the fact that the Mekong is an international waterway. The river begins in the Tibetan Plateau and flows through Burma and Laos, then forms a long stretch of the border between Laos and Thailand before it snakes back through Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, where it finally reaches the South China Sea.
It is inconceivable that countries downstream of the diversion would not raise major objections to the siphoning of large amounts of water from the river, especially since hydroelectric dams in China have already led to much lower water levels in the river for long periods.
Water usage for the lower basin _ Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam is regulated by the Mekong River Commission (MRC). As the MRC's web page notes: ''The food security of 60 million people living in the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) is based on rice and fish... Any substantial and irreversible damage to the ecosystems in the region may lead to severe shortages in food production.''
As a member country of the MRC, Thailand is bound by its agreement to the commission, namely the need to notify the joint committee in a timely manner of its proposed use of water and interbasin diversions, plus possible effects. It is highly questionable that the MRC would support such an ambitious project for unilateral benefit. Some might say the nation's sovereignty should not be abridged by an international agency, but it is fair to ask: what would the response of a Samak-led government be if Burma or Laos decided to divert water upstream on a large scale?
The apparent lack of forethought in the proposal does not instill confidence in the new government. A project of this magnitude needs careful study; it should not have been announced as policy unilaterally at this time.
Prime Minister Samak has said he isn't concerned with opposition from non-governmental organisations, but we have seen these organisations _ with support from local communities who more often than not are never consulted and left out of the decision-making process _ effectively delay and even doom a number of smaller projects.
Also, a previous project that aimed to divert water from the Mekong to the Chi and Mun rivers was shelved because it caused widespread soil salination due to a vast area of salt deposits the diversion waterways had to traverse.
All these debilitating factors should have been taken into account and properly considered before the new government adopted this megaproject as its priority.Bangkok Post Editorial
