The course of the RBC framework and the Ping RBC

The RBC framework was first introduced in Thailand by the Office of the Prime Minister’s Regulation on National Water Resources Management (No.2) of 2002. At this time, there were 29 river basins located across the country. By 2006, 29 river basin sub-committees were appointed for these river basins, and other governing bodies, such as river basin working groups and provincial river basin working groups, were appointed as well (DWR 2006). Against this background, this study initially planned to select one of the 29 river basin sub-committees: the Upper Ping River Basin Sub-Committee, as a study case.

The Upper Ping River Basin (UPRB) consists of 14 sub-river basins, covering the provinces of Chiang Mai and Lamphun (Figure 3.1 and 3.2). In the fiscal year 2007 (October 2006-September 2007), the Upper Ping River Basin Coordination and Management Section (URCMS)²⁶, which was responsible for the UPRB, selected the Mae Rim sub-river basin (one of the 14 UPRB sub-river basins) to conduct a pilot study, which was chosen initially as a focused study area. The Mae Rim Sub-river Basin Working Group also would be examined, together with the UPRB Sub-Committee, as this Working Group could be observed from the start of the setup.

Unfortunately, there was a long delay in implementing the pilot project of the Mae Rim sub-river basin. Its initial meeting was held on July 19, 2007 and the framework of the Mae Rim Sub-river Basin Working Group was discussed. It was agreed that the Mae Rim sub-river basin be divided into three parts: upper, middle and lower. Each part would also have its own working group, nested under the Mae Rim Sub-river Basin Working Group. The meetings were organized in September 2007 - the last month of the fiscal year - to discuss the working group framework for the above three Mae Rim sub-river basin parts, but implementation of any activities had to wait for the new fiscal year.

26 URCMS is a division under the Water Resources Regional Office 1 (WRO 1) of the DWR.

Figure 3.1: The Ping River Basin and its components

Source: The Upper Ping River Basin Coordination and Management Section (2008);

Compiled by Sureeporn Sri-ngam, The Uplands Program-SFB564

Figure 3.2: The Upper Ping River Basin with its 14 sub-river basins

Source: The Upper Ping River Basin Coordination and Management Section (2008);

Compiled by Sureeporn Sri-ngam, The Uplands Program-SFB564

It was found later that the label of ‘pilot project’, given to the Mae Rim sub-river basin, did not reflect the general meaning of this concept; which is, “water managers regularly use pilot projects as instruments for testing innovations and implementing policies on a restricted scale. Pilot projects are the means of applying new approaches in a confined field setting to learn about the innovation-context interaction or adjusting management practices and policies” (VREUGDENHIL, SLINGER, THISSEN, & RAULT, 2010, [online]).

Rather, it was only a label given to a sub-river basin being selected as a target to setup a sub-river basin working group by the DWR line agencies responsible, for example, the URCMS. Additionally, there was in fact a directive requiring these line agencies to establish at least one ‘pilot sub-river basin’ in their jurisdiction within one fiscal year.

Consequently, the URCMS also implemented ‘a pilot sub-river basin’ in the Mae Klang and Mae Khan sub-river basins during the following fiscal years, using the same procedure as that in the Mae Rim sub-river basin by setting up the sub-river basin working group, with no other particular activities.

Concurrently, there was also development concerning the overall RBC framework in the fiscal year 2007. The government issued the Office of the Prime Minister’s Regulation on National Water Resources Management of 2007, which came into effect on July 14, 2007.

This Regulation required the appointment of a new National Water Resources Committee (NWRC), and new river basin committees to replace the existing 29 River Basin Sub-Committees (See 4.4.2). This time, there was 25 river basin committees (RBCs), corresponding to 25 main river basins (BUREAU OF RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND

HYDROLOGY,2009;see Appendix II).

Therefore, the UPRB Sub-Committee was dissolved and official appointments of the

‘pilot’ sub-river basins mentioned above were suspended. With the new demarcation of 25 main river basins, the UPRB was merged with the Lower Ping River Basin (LPRB) to form the Ping River Basin (Figure 1). The LPRB covers three provinces: Tak, Kampaengphet and Nakhonsawan, with 6 sub-river basins. The UPRB extends across two provinces (Chiang Mai and Lamphun), and the Ping River Basin covers an area of 34,499.39 km², making it the fifth largest river basin in Thailand, with 20 sub-river basins in total (BUREAU OF RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND HYDROLOGY, 2009, p. 1-1)²⁷. It should be noted that although the Upper and Lower Ping River Basins were merged, their former agencies - the URCMS and Lower Ping River Basin Coordination and Management

27 See Appendix III for a list of sub-river basins in the Ping River Basin.

Section (LRCMS), respectively – still exist, and both are responsible for the new Ping RBC.

The RBC framework was essentially back to square one in the fiscal year 2008 (October 2007-September 2008). However, it was started again by appointing the new NWRC and 25 new RBCs, with appointment of RBC non-public sector members made in the following fiscal year (see Section 4.4.2 and Section 5.1). The first meeting for each of the 25 new RBCs was scheduled for early 2009 by the Bureau of Mass Promotion and Coordination (BMPC) of the DWR. The first meeting of the new Ping RBC was held on February 6, 2009.

The situation described above changed the course of activities in the UPRB, thereby affecting the original research plan for this study. As the UPRB Sub-Committee and its structure no longer existed, this study took the Ping River Basin Committee as an illustrative case for examining the RBC framework. However, focus on the study area remained in the upper part of the Ping River Basin (the former UPRB), particularly the Mae Rim sub-river basin, where water governance practices were observed at the local level. This gave examples of how water resources were managed in an area where the RBC framework was being implemented.

As mentioned earlier, Thailand is a unitary state with strong centralization (Section 2.4).

Consequently, there is little room for discretion from the public agencies concerned when it comes to implementing a certain policy. In the context of RBC framework implementation, the DWR agencies responsible would be duly expected to follow directives from the DWR or other superior authorities, and indeed this was the case, as indicated by the ‘pilot sub-river basin’ directive presented above. Thus, selecting the Ping RBC (or any other RBC) as an illustrative case of RBC framework implementation was not far-fetched.