Three reasons for doubting Plodprasop
If Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has some good reasons why she lets Deputy Prime Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi supervise the crucial, 350-billion-baht flood prevention scheme, I would like to hear them.
As a member of the general public, I have yet to find a reason why I should trust this man with our precious natural resources.
I can think of at least three reasons why Mr Plodprasop should not be trusted alone with our water resources.
My first problem with him as head of the state’s very expensive flood prevention scheme is that even though the project has advanced to the point where the government will sign contracts with the winners of the project’s nine modules any day now, the public has been given little information.
There has been talk of 28 dams being built under the scheme. Or is it 21? How many exactly? What impacts will these projects have and how will the government, or its contractors, mitigate them? We don’t have any clear information. There has been speculation also that the scheme will involve floodways possibly stretching from the lower northern area through the Central Plains and down to the Gulf of Thailand.
This could affect millions of people in Bangkok and beyond. It’s better if we know early, and prepare ourselves. The government would be better off telling us where the floodway or floodways will be located, and what will happen to those areas in which they will pass, so we can discuss how to correct or soften the impacts in a way that is acceptable to all.
Mr Plodprasop’s committee has not shared anything with the public.
Mr Plodprasop has scarcely engaged with the public or non-governmental organisations who disagree with his ideas on water management.
Many NGOs question the merits of his 350-billion-baht scheme and how he goes about implementing it.
How he chooses to react to his critics is to dismiss their concerns, label them as anti-development. In fact, at one public event, he simply called NGOs ‘‘garbage’’.
When it comes to natural resources management, you want to hear from as many sides as possible because it helps you deal better with a complicated system. Mr Plodprasop is obviously not ready for that.
Another case that shows how Mr Plodprasop is ill-equipped to handle the water resources project is how he responded to people who oppose the planned Mae Wong dam.
Environmentalists are asking how effective the dam, which would be built inside a pristine national park at a cost of 13 billion baht plus more than 13,000 rai of fertile forest, will be for the purpose of flood management.
According to the online media outlet Thai Publica, the Mae Wong reservoir — which has a capacity of 262 million cubic metres — will be able to hold only 1% of the total amount of water that flooded the Central Plains in 2011.
Even if the dam was built, it will be at most 30% effective in controlling flooding in Nakhon Sawan, the outlet said, citing the dam’s environmental and health impacts study.
In response, Mr Plodprasop has chosen not to explain how the dam will help the water management scheme, how it will be worth the investment, forest losses and effects on wildlife and people who live in the area, or not.
He told us none of this. He merely insisted the government has made its decision. It will build the dam even if the impacts assessment has not been approved. And it won’t change its mind.
He dives into dirty water before looking.
This is the same old Mr Plodprasop who at the height of the PTTGC’s oil spill fiasco chose to perform a cheap stunt by swimming in the sea off Koh Samet to show that the clean-up had been successful and it was now safe to enjoy the sea.
The next day the chief of the Pollution Control Department came out to say the level of contamination in the sea at Samet remained some 20% higher than was safe.
Mr Plodprasop ended up red-faced for that premature swim. But a more important matter is whether he is the best custodian for our 350 billion baht and our precious water resources which, once changed, could take generations to repair.