Legal Problems on Controlling, Restricting or Suspending of People’s Rights to Use Water Resources

Abstract

          The objective of this thesis is to analyze the legal problems on controlling, restricting or suspending of people's rights to use water resources. The main focus of research aims to study, firstly, the legal concepts and legal theories concerning the control, restriction, or suspension of the people's rights in using water resources
in Thailand. Secondly, this thesis discusses about the “Water Resources Act, B.E. 2561 (2018), and thirdly, it will compare and analyze the principles and criteria of water resources law between foreign laws and Thai laws in order to find an appropriate model law as a guideline for the amendment of the said Act and other relevant by-law in Thailand.
            At present, water management in Thailand is currently governed by many laws and regulations, and there are multiple government agencies taking responsibilities for the development and management of water resources. After having analyzed the legal dimension of rights in water resources, this research finds that Section 74 of the Water Resources Act, B.E. 2561 (2018) contains provisions that involve controlling, limiting,
or suspending people's rights in using water resources. However, this law is still ambiguous and lack of appropriate rules for the protection of the rights to water. Furthermore, the government agencies do not have clarity of responsibility for the implementation and the enforcement of law. In addition, the exercise of administrative discretion in term of the interpretation of law is still lack of standards of which caused many problems to many people who were victims of law enforcement on this matter.
            For these reasons, this thesis suggests that a new amendment of the existing
laws on this matter for the better protection of people's rights to use water resources in Thailand. It suggests as well to create common responsibilities of relevant government agencies by enacting a new joint ministerial regulation and/or other joint regulations concluded between responsible authorities from different Ministries. By this way, the said by-law will be easy to enact, apply or modify later on based on a particular case basis. Regarding to the compensation for damages and indemnification for any person who is victim of an unlawful act of the authorities, it is advisable to issue an appropriate ministerial regulation that provide detailed criteria for assessing rights and determining compensation for damages and indemnification for the victim. Due to the criteria related to the law on expropriation of riparian lands that may be affected by water management, the actions of authorities should be clear and verifiable, the government should ensure that there must be a provision for compensating affected individuals who hold rightful ownership of riparian lands affected by state actions. Furthermore, it is suggested that there should be other stakeholders such as consumer protection associations or human rights organizations participating as well in the process of law enforcement involving control and limitation of people's rights for better balance of interests and fair utilization of water resources between the people and the government in an appropriate manner.