The 200 billion baht spent by the government following last year's floods only focused on rehabilitation and failed to foster long-term disaster prevention measures, a Senate-sponsored forum has been told.
Several water management experts at the forum yesterday expressed their alarm over the way the government spent the massive flood budget.
The forum at Chulalongkorn University (CU) was organised by a Senate sub-committee studying water management expenditure.
Thanawat Charupongsakul, from the CU's faculty of science and the sub-committee's spokesman, said the Yingluck Shinawatra government spent up to 200 billion baht on flood rehabilitation and prevention after the 2011 flooding. It was the largest sum a Thai government has ever spent on a flood response and water management scheme.
However, most of the money was spent on repairing damaged properties, which was rushed to boost investors' confidence in the government's flood restoration efforts, Mr Thanawat said.
This resulted in the absence of a well-planned and long-term disaster response scheme, he said, adding that this was worrying because Bangkok and the Central Plains are prone to further floods due to changes in climate patterns.
"Existing waterways are not designed to cope with massive natural disasters, while policy on flood disaster response is still unclear. So, the country is at serious risk from future calamities," Mr Thanawat said.
Pramote Maiklad, former director-general of the Royal Irrigation Department and a member of the Strategic Committee for Water Resources Management, said he had not seen any concrete outcome from the government's 200-billion-baht expenditure.
Many canals are still undredged and the government is now set to spend billions more baht on other water management projects, Mr Pramote said.
He said the government's 350-billion-baht water management scheme is based on a computer model, which might not correspond with environmental and local conditions.
Water and Flood Management Commission (WFMC) member Apichat Anukulamphai said Thailand's water management remains ineffective because of city planning and poor law enforcement.
Waterways have been encroached upon, sometimes by state agencies themselves, he said.
Mr Apichat urged local administrative organisations to strictly enforce laws against waterway encroachment, which has been identified as a major obstacle to WFMC flood prevention projects.
He said the WFMC, along with state and private agencies, is working to draft a comprehensive plan for the country.