Technical Assistance Consultant’s Report

This consultant’s report does not necessarily reflect the views of ADB or the Government concerned, and ADB and the Government cannot be held liable for its contents.

Project Number: 46231 December 2015

Thailand: Strengthening Integrated Water and Flood Management Implementation (Financed by the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction)

Prepared by:

Christopher Wensley

For: Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board, Thailand

TA 8267-THA – STRENGTHENING INTEGRATED WATER AND FLOOD

MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION IN THAILAND

Mae Yom Weir, Yom River, Phrae Province

Background

During the last quarter of 2011, Thailand experienced

its worst flooding since 1942. The floods affected

almost 14 million people in 65 of Thailand’s 77

provinces, with widespread damage and loss to

homes, factories, businesses, transport and energy

infrastructure, social service facilities, and crops

and livestock. The total economic damage and loss

caused by the floods is estimated at approximately

$45 billion, with manufacturing experiencing an

estimated $32 billion damage and loss.

Following the floods, the Asian Development Bank

(ADB) assisted the Government to conduct an

international forum to share experience and

knowledge on flood management and response

(19-20 January 2012). ADB has also assisted

the Office of the National Economic and Social

Development Board (NESDB) through a technical

assistance (TA)1 to address key areas of the

government’s Master Plan on Water Resources

Management.2 The TA aimed to reduce damage and

loss from floods, and improve the decision-making

process for integrated water resources management

(IWRM),3 focusing on flood management.

Following the change in Government in early 2014,

the TA approach was adjusted to address priority

aspects of the water sector, including: (1) water

resources management planning and policy; (2)

economic sector analysis; (3) social issues of

public participation and consultation; (4) strategic

environmental assessments (SEAs); and (5)

modeling to inform water resources planning. This

following summarizes the work and recommendations

of TA in each of these areas.

Flooding at Don Muang Airport, October 2011

1. Water Resources Management Planning and

Policy

Thailand was the one of first countries in the

region to adopt the principles of IWRM as a basis

for water management planning. It established the

Department of Water Resources (DWR) in 2000,

and river basin organizations (RBOs) were set up in

2002 to decentralize the basin planning and adopt

river basins as planning units. However, progress

has been slow in achieving IWRM objectives and

approaches. The RBOs have not worked well,

due to a lack of technical, legal and institutional

structures, procedures and tools to enable IWRM

principles to be applied in practice. Provincial water

management plans have been criticized as

“shopping lists” of projects that do not follow IWRM

principles and many local priorities are not included

in central government agency work programs.

1 ADB approved TA 8267-THA (Project no. 46231-001) on 11

December 2012 for $1,500,000, financed under the Japan Fund for

Poverty Reduction.2 The Master Plan was initially approved in January 2012 but

canceled by the new Government in early 2014. A Water Management

Board formed on 4 July 2014 to set a policy framework and prepare

a new water resources management plan. A water resources

management act was approved in principle by the Cabinet in

January 2015, and is being considered by the National Legislative

Council.

3 Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is a process

that promotes the coordinated development and management of

water, land and related resources in order to maximise economic

and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising

thesustainability of vital ecosystems.

(Global Water Partnership, 2010)

National workshops4 were held under the ADB TA

to promote awareness and consensus on issues,

tools and processes for improving IWRM in Thailand.

Participants discussed the need for a change in mind-set

in IWRM coordination and to move away from

engineering solutions towards more integrated,

consultative management approaches based on

ecosystems. A key need is a “new vision” for water

in Thailand, that goes beyond the current, somewhat

restricted vision of the water agencies, with greater

attention to the role of water in Thailand’s broader

development agenda. Workshop discussions and

TA activities within the Yom River basin provided

the basis for TA recommendations to strengthen

IWRM and water management. These were

summarized in briefing note for the National

Economic and Social Development Board

(NESDB).5 These cover three sets of issues, at

the national, basin and project level:

� National Policy. Recognizing the multitude

of agencies currently dealing with water

issues, a National Water Resources

Committee or Council (NWRC) should be

established, with legal provisions to act as the

apex water resources body to make strategic,

long term national policies, to coordinate, harmonize

and align sector plans as they relate to water

issues and to act as the link between the national

policy makers and water managers. The

mandates of water-related agencies should be

reviewed and revised to promote sustainability,

optimize synergies, avoid overlaps or grey areas

and align their operations towards a common

goal. NWRC should act as the arbitrator where

there are conflicting sector goals, policies and

decisions to ensure that development can

proceed on a consistent sustainable basis

according to a national water strategy.

� TA involvement in the Mae Ta Sub-basin of the

Yom River Basin highlighted the need to survey

and re-zone degraded National Forest Reserves

to allow for community use and management,

particularly construction of water storage

facilities.

� River Basin Policy. With 25 major river basins

in Thailand, RBOs should be established as

legal entities and empowered by law to formulate

river basin plans, coordinate and vet

development projects to ensure they align with

those plans. The policy and legal framework to

support RBOs should, by including best-practice

IWRM provisions into the proposed new Water

Law, clarify the overall purpose and process of

basin planning, including: (i) roles and

responsibilities of RBOs and other government

agencies; (ii) provide formal requirements for

stakeholder consultation, grievance and dispute

resolution; and (iii) establish mechanisms for

implementation of basin plans. Watershed and

water resources planning should be devolved

to the RBO level, and RBOs should be

adequately funded and provided with technical

support to perform these tasks. An independent

arbitration tribunal should be established to hear

appeals and address stakeholder concerns about

basin plans.

� Membership of river basin and sub-basin

committees (RBCs and SBCs) should be more

balanced and include representatives of all

categories of water users, especially local

villages. Guidelines on best practice for

consultation between stakeholders and all

agencies and levels of government should be

issued, and mandatory requirements defined.

� Where appropriate, Provincial-level Water

Management Centers could be established

following the Phrae model which has been

successful for coordinating management in the

Yom River Basin; these centers should be

adequately staffed and funded.

4 2-3 July 2014 and 15-16 January 2015. The workshops

brought together participants from more than 20 Government

executive bodies, line agencies, provincial authorities, River Ba

sin Committees as well as local stakeholders in the Yom Basin.5 Briefing notes on Recommendations for Reform in the Water

sector -- submission to NESDB (Jan 2015)

Public consultation – Multi-agency Working

Group, established under the TA in the Mae Ta Sub-basin.

� Sustainable funding is also required to continue

to support the multi-agency working group,

established under the TA, in the Mae Ta

Sub-basin as a pilot, bottom-up consultation

mechanism for scaling-up nationwide.

� Project level policy. Procedures, tools and

guidelines for project appraisal, including

economic and poverty analysis and strategic

environmental assessment (SEA), need to be

updated. In particular, NESDB’s project

appraisal manual should more fully reflect

international “good practice” for investment

analysis, and capacity developed for enhanced

economic analysis. A national SEA framework

should also be prepared and adopted by the

Government, including a timeframe, roadmap,

resources to fund its implementation. It should

be reflected in the proposed Water Law and

revised Environmental Protection Law. There

should also be mandatory data sharing data

between government agencies and a review of

existing water and river basin plans for

appropriateness and completeness prior to

implementation.

Flooding adjacent to the Don Muang Tollway, Bangkok, October 2011.

2. Economic Sector Analysis

The TA sponsored two economic analysis

workshops to introduce enhanced socioeconomic

analysis techniques to improve investment

identification, design and evaluation of water

resources management projects. These aimed

to extend socioeconomic analysis beyond that

typically applied to water projects in Thailand.

In the context of improving IWRM practices,

the workshops introduced ‘good practice’

socioeconomic techniques in: sector analysis

(including the role of water markets); environmental

impacts assessment; detailed design considerations

(alternatives, distribution and poverty analyses,

financial/institutional sustainability); consideration

of climate change, and monitoring and evaluation.

Participants in the first workshop6 noted that the

tools and techniques generally were useful and

worthy of promotion, but further capacity building

and training was needed. The workshop was only

able to introduce topics, and more training was

required if techniques were to be more widely

applied in water projects. Guidelines and

manuals for ‘better practice’ would be useful, including

environmental impact evaluation.

Poverty analysis. At the request of the Royal

Irrigation Department (RID), a second workshop

was conducted in June-July 20157 to familiarise

its staff with the application of distribution analysis

and poverty impact ratio (PIR) estimation in project

economic analysis in general, and in water resources

management projects in particular. Case studies

and global policy discussions on water charges and

rice production support were used to familiarize RID

staff with distribution analysis and PIR estimation.

RID appreciate that economic analysis remains

under-employed in application and under-developed

in scope in its operations. Irrigation project

designs and implementation are almost

entirely driven by technical rather than economic

considerations.

6 Economics Workshop (28-29 August 2014)

7 Poverty Impact Ratio Workshop (29 June to 3 July 2015)

Economic pricing is unclear, quantification

of benefit streams are incomplete, and

most economic work is done at the EIA

rather than the appraisal stage. Consultants

are normally engaged to do economic analysis

rather than RID staff, who consequently

lack experience in the application of economic

analysis. RID is keen to improve staff use of and

familiarity with economic analysis in project

analysis.

Yom River, Phrae Province

3. Social Issues of Public Participation and

Consultation

Public participation, especially in IWRM, is

internationally accepted as an integral part of

natural resource management, recognizing

that when stakeholders and beneficiaries are

involved in the design, planning, implementation,

monitoring and evaluation of a project, they are more

likely to embrace it as their own. They will likely

support its implementation and help make it a success.

Incorporating local knowledge into project

design positively impacts a project’s overall benefits

compared to its costs.

Several TA workshops were organized in the Yom

River basin8 and the Mae Ta Sub-basin to9 facilitate

public consultation on water resources planning.

Based on this work and international best practice

on IWRM, the TA developed guidelines for public

participation10 intended to capitalize on substantive

public participation and stakeholder engagement in

the design and implementation of water resource

management plans and projects. Checklists provide

a guide for project monitoring and to implement

actions to improve or mitigate any negative

social impacts identified during project design and

planning. Periodic implementation of the

checklists during and after project completion

enables unanticipated impacts to be identified and

mitigated.

A key outcome of consultation in the Mae Ta

sub-basin is that three Sub-Districts are now

actively working together to develop a basin plan

to manage shared water resources. While many

gaps still remain, opportunities to promote public

consultation to formulate sustainable water

resource management plans should continue,

addressing both supply limitations and demands from

various stakeholder groups, and building on Thai and

international experiences.

Local weir at Mae Ta Sub-basin

4. Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs)

During the IWRM workshops, participants highlighted

the need for a national strategic environmental

8 Observation report - Public consultation (Piboon Songkram

Rajaphat University, Pitsanulok Province, 9 September 2014)

9 Prioritizing strategies for IWRM in Mae Ta – Workshop Report

(18-19 March 2015)

10 Public Participation Guidelines and Checklist (June 2015)

assessment (SEA) framework to strengthen the

sustainability of water resource management.11

A workshop on SEA was thus convened and

recommended that a wider and more systematic use

of SEA would be beneficial for Thailand.12 To do this, a

legal framework for SEA is needed. The requirements

for SEA process and supporting tools should be

flexible and non-prescriptive and there should be

a central agency responsible for oversight of the

SEA system.13 Capacity building in SEA concepts

and processes would be required to ensure the

satisfactory implementation of a future SEA system,

and the SEA framework should consider different

options for ensuring the quality of SEA practitioners

and products including registration and certification.

Participants recommended that the Government

should develop a roadmap for development and

implementation of the national SEA framework.

Multiple dimensions of water management on the Chao Phraya River,

Ayudhaya: transport, urban development, tourism and flood

management.

The TA consultants prepared a briefing paper on

SEA14 on options to establish a firm but flexible

Thai SEA system. The paper outlines international

best practice and suggests that a combination

of law and policy should be the basis for a Thai

SEA system. The core process and substantive

requirements of SEA should be set out in legislation, with

flexible additional requirements and expectations, and

guidance, provided through one or more policy

instruments. The guidelines identify 10 important

components of a sustainable Thai SEA framework for

the preparation and adoption of all water resources

and other national development plans (such as

transport and industrial development). Key concepts

include assessment of alternatives, cumulative

effects, definition of roles and responsibilities, public

participation, reviews and appeals, and learning

and adjustment. NESDB has subsequently engaged

consultants to prepare an SEA manual.

5. Modelling to Inform Water Resources Planning

An integrated hydrologic and watershed IWRM

model, drawing on regional modeling experience for

the Mekong River,15 was used to explore various

water management scenarios for the Yom Basin16

The IWRM model, which is freeware and freely

available for use by Thai agencies, incorporates

spatial information on topography, river lines, land

use, irrigation and soils, and uses hydro-

meteorological and historical

11 Strategic assessment or SEA is a planning and decision-making

tool to ensure policies and plans make positive contributions to

sustainability, as well as avoiding or mitigating adverse

environmental, social and economic effects.

12 SEA Workshop- Key findings and recommendations

(13-14 December 2014)

13 National Environment Board and the national Committee for

Sustainable Development could be suitable senior bodies for

oversight of a national SEA system, while NESDB and ONEP

were identified as potential supporting agencies.

14 Briefing notes Establishing a strong and flexible Thai SEA system

- Guidance paper (January 2015)

15 Koponen, J., Lauri, H., Veijalainen, N., and Sarkkula, J. (2010)

HBV and IWRM Watershed Modelling User Guide, MRC Infor

mation and Knowledge management Programme,

DMS – Detailed Modelling Support for the MRC Project,

Available at: www.eia.fi.

16 Yom Basin IWRM Modelling Results Report (9 June 2016)

Table 1: Key Results of the Nine Modeling Scenarios of Yom River Basin

Current Climate

1. Reforestation considerably decreases daily discharge and sediment outflows

2. Improvements in irrigation efficiency increases crop yields for both rice and maize

(due to more water available for irrigation)

3. Construction of two large reservoirs increases both rice and maize production, but indicates that

the reservoirs are not well sized for the planned command areas and crop calendars, and there is no

mitigation of flood peaks

4. Construction of 28 medium-scale reservoirs (which would also require the development of new

command areas) suggests moderate increases in rice and maize production but many of the reservoirs

are not appropriately sized for the planned command areas and this scenario does not mitigate flood flows

5. Combining 28 reservoirs with improvements in irrigation efficiency, increases rice and maize production

further and decreases risk of crop failure

6. Combining soft and hard management (two large - and 28 medium-scale reservoirs, combined with

reforestation and improvements in irrigation efficiency) suggest marked increases in average annual rice

and maize production and decreased flood risk in the basin, although the reservoirs not well designed for

their command areas with the two large reservoirs empty once every two years

Climate Change - increase in wet season and decrease in dry season precipitation, with a year-

round 3°C increase in temperature (projected 2050 climate, assumes worst case IPCC AR4

regional scatter diagrams for SE Asia)

1. Climate change with current management increases wet season discharges and decreases dry season

discharges. Increased seasonal variability of precipitation causes a potential worsening of floods and

short-term dry season droughts. Higher wet season water availability and transpiration increases rice

production moderately, but maize production is less due to its reliance on dry season flows

2. Climate change with construction 28 medium-scale reservoirs mitigates some impacts of climate

change on discharge but seasonal variability may worsen occurrence and duration of floods as well as

risks of short-term drought in the dry season. Annual rice and maize production exhibit limited

increases com pared to the climate change only scenario, due likely to the larger cropping area of rice

and stronger reliance of maize on dry season flows, but modeling indicates that reservoir sizes are not

well matched to their command areas

3. Climate change combined soft and hard management does not significantly alter the mitigation of

climate change impacts on discharge compared to the 28 medium-scale reservoirs, but seasonal variability

may worsen occurrence and duration of floods as well as risks of short-term drought in the dry season.

Significant increases in annual rice production are predicted in response to higher water availability due to

both increased precipitation and reservoir storage volumes, and significant increases in maize production

are predicted due to increases in cropping area and the additional reservoir storage available and improved

irrigation efficiency. The two large reservoirs will empty at least once every four years, and all reservoirs

are not well sized compared to their command areas. As with all other cases, reservoir sedimentation will be

minimal, but reductions in sediment loads may cause increased channel erosion in the Yom Basin and fur

ther downstream