Eleven ADB-Financed Irrigation Projects in Thailand Dropped After Government Objects by Phairath Khampha 30 June 2001 Thailand's Royal Irrigation Department cancelled all but one of 12 irrigation programmes financed by the Asian Development Bank loans as a result of the government's inability to cope with the bank's terms and other inherent problems related to implementation of water resources management, the department chief said on June 13, 2001. Director-general Kijja Pholphasi said his department decided to return loans worth 648 million baht (1 US Dollar = 45.30 Thai Baht) for 11 water pipe laying projects to the ADB because it would not be able to comply with ADB-mandated cost-recovery and time-frame conditions. He said only a project to lay irrigation water pipes in Kanchanaburi province worth 52 million baht was still intact. Kijja said apart from the government being unable to comply with the ADB terms, some villagers would not allow the pipes to pass through their land. The ADB requires the department to collect water fees from farmers as part of its conditions to approve the loans. Furthermore, implementation of new national water resources management policies, as demanded by the ADB and developed through a ADB-financed technical assistance, created difficulties for farmers and had resulted in a large number of political problems because influential politicians were using the policy changes to try to profit through corrupt means. Kijja said that now, in hindsight, he wished that the government had not so easily accepted a former prime minister's veiled orders and thus had recommended to the ADB they use SEATEC Consulting Engineers together with a Vancouver, Canada-based engineering consulting firm rather than TEAM Engineering, together with its British associate, Halcrow Water to carry out the technical assistance because the methodology proposed in the Canadian firm's proposal was more appropriate and showed a better understanding of the Thai cultural issues surrounding water resources management. The ADB had been pressured to award the Water Resources Sector Project Technical Assistance be carried out by the Thai firm TEAM Engineering, together with its British associate, Halcrow Water, because of its close connections with former Thai premier Banharn Silapa-archa. However, there also was much opposition in the country to this manoeuver as the Thais believe they should have a say as to how they manage their own water, not an outside body such as the ADB or the politicans, who only act in their own interests. In 1999, the ADB threatened to cut off all or part of the $600 million agricultural restructuring loan to Thailand if its demands were not met, particularly with respect to the implementation of water-user fees and restructuring water resources management in Thailand. TEAM Engineering supported Banharn Silapa-archa's dealings with the ADB in favour of meeting the bank's demands. It was common knowledge even among Thai farmers who followed the issue with keen interest. Former Agriculture Minister Pongpol Adiraksarn ouster from the Thai government cabinet was linked to his conflict with Mr Banharn over management of the $600 million loan from the Asian Development Bank and over which international consulting firm would be selected to carry out the technical assistance, as this technical assistance would lay out the groundwork for carrying out the changes to water resources management in Thailand, as imposed by the ADB. He had favoured Klohn Crippen Consultants over Halcrow, however Banharn is Thailand's de facto king-maker. In retrospect, Kijja said, he wished it had gone to the Canadian firm as he was now sure that the engineers who had been proposed by the firm would have been better able to resolve the issues owning to their strong understanding of Thailand's rural people's issues, the Thai culture, water resources and agrarian systems and, furthermore, some of the engineers even spoke Thai fluently, which would have resulted in a better understanding and melding of western water resources management concepts to the Thai context.