The Thai King’s lifetime commitment to ESD water management

BANGKOK, Thailand – I passed by Bangkok after a week long conference on Environmental Education for Sustainable Development (EESD) in Yangon, Myanmar to confer with our agri partner M.L. Professor Charuphant "Noi" Thongtham of the Thai Royal Project. Buildings were covered with gigantic billboards of the handsome King of Thailand and street arches had yellow drapes with his picture in celebration of Chatramongkhon or the 60th anniversary of the accession to the throne of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Never before had any Thai monarch been on the throne for 60 years. The longest reign prior to His Majesty was King Chulalongkorn Rama V, who reigned for 42 years.

Although the celebration took place from June 8 to 13 and was highlighted by the attendance of royalty from 25 kingdoms of the world, the Thai people consider 2006 as an auspicious year and have been continuing the celebration expressing their complementary wishes to His Majesty who has been true to his lifetime pledge, "I shall reign with righteousness for the happiness and benefit of the Siamese people."

The royal barge procession on the Chao Phraya River

The major highlight of the celebration is the procession of the royal barges, only done for very, very special royal events like the Chatramongkhon.

The 52 boats and 2,082 oarsmen glided down the great river, which flows by the Temple of the Dawn and the Grand Palace. The river is crisscrossed with waterways that used to fill up many canals around Bangkok serving as water transport routes when the population was smaller. Known as klongs, they have been covered and made into wide avenues to ease the traffic.

The Thais’ long love affair with water and boats has been revived with this extravagant procession bringing history of royal naval vessels (the ruea luang) reserved for military activities and used by the monarchs. The slender vessels use 20 to 30 soldiers while large ones used for war were rowed by 60 to 70 oarsmen.

Lt. Nathawat sang the name of the royal barge, the number of vessels and major boats in the procession. He chanted cha-la-wa-hey to accompany the rowing rhythm. As the rowing became faster, the singing switched to moon-la-hey. At the end of the procession, 60,000 candle-bearing krathong were released into the river and 5,000 northern-style floating lanterns released into the air.

Helping people help themselves

The 2003 International Year of Freshwater was inspired by the UN World Water Development Report that says "hardly any" goals have been met in providing water and sanitation for billions in developing nations. To halve the proportion of people without access to safe water by 2015 means connecting nearly 300,000 people every day to a supply of clean water and 500,000 to a sanitation system.

Since his ascension to the throne in 1946, King Bhumibol Adulyadej has been deeply interested in easing the troubles and pains of all his subjects in all regions and raising their standard of living.

Accompanied by Her Majesty Queen Sirikit, he has visited the Thai people in all regions and learned much about their living conditions. He learned that the rural people are poor because their farming does not yield sufficient crops and this is largely due to an insufficient and unstable supply of water. Thus, His Majesty provided "water" aid to the people through various forms of water sources development projects. This benefited not only agriculture, but the great majority of the Thai people, as well.

He realized that the most effective way to help these people would be to give them the means to be able to stand on their own feet. In other words, helping people help themselves.

Surface water sources development

In the past Thailand was known as a cradle of fertility. There was plenty of water in the streams, marshes and canals. At present, however, several areas in each region of the country regularly face abnormal droughts in both the rainy and dry season.

They are then forced to find water sources to support their livelihood. The water sources that can be most easily and extensively utilized for consumption, agriculture and other purposes are surface water sources, such as rivers, streams, marshes and canals. Ponds and marshes that have collected rainwater in the rainy season may provide enough water to ease the troubles, but there might be little or no water at all in some rivers, streams and creeks during this time.

For this reason, His Majesty has initiated projects such as the reservoir projects, diversion weir projects, marshes and swamps dredging projects.

Reservoir projects

Reservoirs store water that flows along natural channels or waterways by building dams in mountain passes or between hills. These are called impounding dams. The collected water forms various sizes of reservoirs.

Most of the impounding dams are popularly built from soil that has been deposited and compressed. The depth and amount of water in reservoirs created by this earthfill dams vary in accordance with the height of each dam. This water can be sent through pipes to use for rice farming, crop growing, animal raising and home consumption. The reservoirs may also be used to breed fish and freshwater prawns, as well as to prevent and abate floods in cultivated areas along both banks of the river.

In every region of the country, where shortages occur regularly, many reservoir projects are set up in this area. In the northern region: Mae Ngat Sombun Chon reservoir in Chiang Mai province and Mae Tam reservoir in Phayao province. In the northeastern region: Huay Diak reservoir in Sakhon Nakhon province and Huay Sam Phat reservoir in Udon Thani province. In the central region: Khong Sai Thong reservoir in Nakhon Nayok province and Huay Sap Takhian reservoir in Lopburi province. In the southern region: Klai Ban reservoir in Narathiwat province and Khlong La reservoir in Songkhla province.

The result — people who used to suffer from water shortages in the dry season no longer worry about their water supply and their livestock have plenty of clean water for use all year round. The villagers become healthier and they are able to supplement their incomes by raising more livestock. When His Majesty visits and inspects the finished reservoirs, he sets baby fish and shrimp in each reservoir as an initiating gesture so that people in these areas may have fish and shrimp for consumption.

Diversion weir projects

The construction of a weir involves the blocking of the flow of running water in order to raise the level of water high enough to be diverted through the canals or ditches to cultivated areas on both banks of the river. Every weir built is specified to be high enough for the conveyance of water into the canal and the weir crest must be long enough to drain an enormous amount of water in the flood season to flow over it safely without inundating too much the banks inn the areas ahead of the weir. Even though they might accommodate cultivation only during the time when there is a flow of water in the waterways, the water reserved in waterways ahead of the weirs may be used for consumption in the dry season, thus abating the misery of the people.

It is also common to build diversion dams in big waterways with abundant flow of water in the rainy season. These are not as solid as weirs, but are able to raise water to any desired level. Mostly in the south and the north, such projects include Aidahong diversion weir in Narathiwat province and Ban Rae diversion weir in Yala province, as well as the Khlong Mai Siap diversion dam in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, Pang Tong and Luang To Phae diversion dams in Mae Hong San province, and Lam Nam Choen diversion dam in Khon Kaen province.

Irrigation system projects always accompany each reservoir, diversion weir and dam project when water has to be distributed evenly to aid cultivated areas or communities. The popular low cost irrigation system includes the irrigation canals and other structures along these canals. In areas with steep terrain, the irrigation canal system may not be practical due to the excessive cost of construction, a pipe system similar to a tap-water pipe is set up.

Marsh and swamp dredging projects

These are projects to dredge shallow natural marshes and swamps so that they may be deep enough to hold more water. By nature, most marshes and swamps are depression or lowlands that have a natural balance to collect a certain amount of water. If in any year it rains so much that the amount of rainfall exceeds the normal amount, the excess water would be naturally drained through the drainage channels in the low areas so that the level of water in store would be the same as the level of the crest of the water channels.

Water in the marshes and swamps can be pumped up to grow vegetables and crops, to raise livestock, and to use for consumption within the villages. The marshes and swamps can also be used to breed fish.

His Majesty has restored the natural marshes and swamps in many areas, such as in Sakhon Nakhon and Nakhon Phanom provinces, as well as in several other localities in the central region.

Impounding pond projects

Impounding ponds are places to store rainwater, runoff or water seeping from the ground. The length, width and depth of these ponds are in proportion to the amount of water needed to be stored for use. Most of these ponds have small water capacities in areas where no natural waterways exist.

Impounding ponds are made by digging the ground to create ponds and use the dug up soil to make dikes around the ponds. Some ponds may have dikes on their sides and some have curved dikes around the lower part depending on the physical features of the area.

His Majesty initiated the idea of providing water for approximately 15 rai of cultivated land by allotting 25-30 percent of the overall area for pond digging with the remaining area divided into 30 percent for rice farming, 30 percent for fruit and field crops, and the final 10 percent for houses and buildings.

This was first introduced on a 16 rai piece of land belonging to the Chaipattana Foundation in Saraburi province. It has since expanded to areas owned by more than 100 villagers at Kalasin province. The results have been satisfactory and now each farmer has water to work on his integrated farm, bringing a stable income to his family.

The Thai King deserves the highest EESD award

All through the 60 years of his reign, King Bhumibol Adulyadej has become a lantern lighting the way of the Thais. There is not one spot in Thailand that he has not yet set his foot. He deserves the highest award for Environmental Education for Sustainable Development.

His Majesty stresses: "Leaders should govern in a poor man’s manner, not relying too much on theories. If a country is governed with kindness and unity, it can survive the test of time. It is not like the ones who do everything by the book. Without their books, they do not know what to do, and in the end they have to start again from the first pages."

He adds, "Loss is gain. When we do something, it may seem to result in a loss, but in the end that loss turns out to be an indirect gain. The government’s money is the people’s money, so if we want them to live well, we have to invest by setting up projects which cost a great deal of capital. The government invests, but the people benefit from the investment. When they have a better living condition, then they gain income. When people have more income, the government can collect more taxes and these taxes can be used in setting up more projects for the progress of the country."

It is no wonder why Thailand has maintained her sovereignty steadfastly and has been progressing with dignity to the present day. THE QUESTION IS — CAN WE HOPE FOR OUR LEADER TO DO THE SAME?

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