UPCOMING EVENT: Water politics and policy in Thailand and beyond [Hybrid, 22 July 2022]

Date and time: 13:30 – 15:00, Friday 22nd July 2022 [ICT]

Panel at the 7th International Conference on International Relations and Development (ICIRD), Chiang Mai, Thailand

 This panel will be hybrid

Panel description: In Thailand, contested access, use and control of water underpins many broader issues in visions, policies and plans for ‘development’. Tension has emerged between centralized management at the national level, the associated partial implimentation of state-led river basin organizations, and local level governance practices, as well as the role and authority of government and non-state actors such as community-based organizations, civil society and other stakeholders. Overall, accelerating processes of economic modernization have shifted Thailand’s ‘waterscape’ via the construction and operation of large-scale water infrastructures such as irrigation schemes and hydropower dams as human demand for water for agriculture, industry, hydroelectricity and domestic consumption has grown. This has also transformed pre-existing local water management practices and cultures.

This panel presents four papers on water policy and its politics in Thailand. We situate the panel within recent academic and civil society research in Thailand and globally that draws attention to how multiple worldviews underpin contrasting visions for rivers and related resources. The papers detail a range of key issues at stake in contemporary water governance in Thailand, emphasizing the social, economic, political, and cultural specificities associated with their case studies. This includes how competing demands for water have emerged in recent decades, the formal and informal decision-making processes that have occurred and its politics, the outcomes including in terms of those who have benefited most and those who have lost out, and approaches that could make water governance in Thailand more inclusive, sustainable, and just.

Further details on ICIRD7 can be found here, including for registration: https://icird7.soc.cmu.ac.th/?page_id=30

Papers on the panel are as follows:

“The Politics of Water Governance in Community Water Distribution/Management: Implications from Local Communities’ Practices in Surin and Chiang Rai Provinces, Thailand” by Yuppayao Tokeeree and Chuanpit Jarat (Program of Environmental Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Surindra Rajabhat University), Suebsakun Kidnukornand (Area-based Social Innovation Research Center (Ab-SIRC), The School of Social Innovation, Mae Fah Luang University), and Jitraporn Somyanontanakul (College of Politics and Governance, Mahasarakham University).

“Human Rights in Accessing Water Resource for Livelihoods: A Case Study in the Eastern Area of Thailand” by Jakkaphun Nanuam (Burapha University) and Somnuck Jongmeewasin (EEC Watch)

“Unheard Voices in Thailand's Water Policy and Practices” by Malee Sitthikriengkrai (Center for Ethnic Studies and Development, Chiang Mai University)

“Dealing with the Unpredictable River and Ontological Differences of the Ing River” by Thianchai Surimas (Graduate Research in International Development (GRID), Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University)

Moderator: Carl Middleton, Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University