Academics have called on the government to adopt proposed reform legislation as a key mechanism to overhaul the country's water management system.
The bill is being deliberated by the National Reform Council (NRC).
Pramote Maiklad, chairman of the NRC's sub-committee on water resources management reform and adviser to the Engineering Institute of Thailand's (EIT) sub-committee on water resources engineering, said yesterday he did not trust the cabinet to review the NRC bill sensibly.
He said some state organisations were refusing to change the way they handled water management and these groups were likely to influence the cabinet's decision.
Mr Pramote was speaking at a seminar on the bill held yesterday in Bangkok by the EIT.
He encouraged the cabinet to consider the NRC's bill, which he said was crucial for the country's reform of water resources management.
The NRC's proposal is based on two bills: One proposed by the Department of Water Resources and the other by members of the public, said Sitang Pilaila, an academic and the secretary of the NRC's sub-committee on water resources management reform.
She said both drafts had gone before public hearings and since been merged into one.
Unfortunately, while the NRC was deliberating this merged draft, a different bill tabled by the Department of Water Resources was hurriedly proposed and passed by the cabinet on June 16, she said.
The bill, if approved, would be overseen by the Science and Technology Ministry.
This bill raised doubts about the government's sincerity in water resources management reform, she said.
A lack of information in water resources was a major factor hindering efforts to reform the overall water management system, said Suwatana Chittaladakorn, deputy chairman of the EIT's sub-committee on water resources engineering.
He said he couldn't understand why the Water Resources Information Institute Bill suddenly emerged and won approval by the cabinet.
Previously, the only legal mechanism employed on water management was the PM's Office regulations on water management that applied only to certain state organisations.
This made it difficult to achieve the goal of coming up with a nationwide water resources strategy, said Ladawan Kumpa, deputy secretary-general of the Office of the National Economic and Society Development Board.
The bill centralised water resources information, which is against the government's aim of reforming the management system, she said.