Thai King internationally recognised as expert on water management

BANGKOK, June 13 (TNA) - The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) hosts the 10th Asian Crisis Management Conference in the Thai capital from June 12-15, at which participating members of the Asian Network of Major Cities 21 (ANMC21) have praised His Majesty King Bhummibol Adulyadej as a world expert on water management. Delivering a special lecture today at the international conference, Dr. Sumet Tantivejkul, Secretary-General of the Chaipattana Foundation acknowledged that His Majesty the King has worked tirelessly and righteously for the development of the country over the past 65 years of his reign, resulting in over 4,200 royally-initated projects, 75 per cent of which have been for water resources management. Dr. Sumet said that His Majesty the King has always advocated people's lifestyles in harmony with nature and has taken a holistic approach to water resource management, with royal initiatives to handle water from its origin to the very finish of the water cycle, including many techniques to solve relevant problems covering the construction of dams and small and medium-sized reservoirs, the implementation of a number of water resource management projects and the efficient use of water in electricity generating. Dr. Sumet revealed that various agencies have now practiced water management approaches since they were first introduced by His Majesty the King 16 years ago, and that, following His Majesty the King’s in-depth studies, upstream reforestation has been widely recognized by Thais and those in the international community as the most efficient approach of flood prevention and control. (TNA)