Transcript Ethics of Water Management: The Thai Case

Ethics of Water
Management:
The Thai Case
Soraj Hongladarom
Center for Ethics of Science and
Technology,
Chulalongkorn University
Presented at the 8th IAB World Congress of Ethics,
Beijing, China, August 6 - 9, 2006
Overview
 What happened recently in the country
 Conflict between industry and
population
 Ethical/social and political issues
 Conclusion
Eastern Seaboard Area
 What happened there
Updated: Thursday 14 July 2005 - Thailand: industrial
output cut to reduce water consumption
Siam Cement PCL (SCC), Thailand's biggest industrial
conglomerate, announced on 22 June 2005 that its petrochemical
plants in drought-hit eastern Thailand will cut production by about
40 per cent. The cut was prompted by the need to reduce water
consumption.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said industrial plants on the
eastern seaboard did not need to cut output because there was
enough water for the next two months. He said the situation was not
critical and the government had launched artificial rain making
efforts, which should increase water supplies in the area. Eastern
Water Resources Development and Management, Thailand's
largest industrial water supplier, confirmed it had enough water to
supply clients until September 2005 after the success of recent
cloud seeding efforts.
Ethical Issues
 Conflict between interests of the
industry and the villagers
 Economic development against the
interest of the environment and the
villagers
 How to find a balance?
 How to protect the environment which
will benefit us in the long term?
Management of Scarce
Resource
 Water has become scarcer.
 Yet there does not seem to be
concerted effort to think this over.
 At the heart of the problem lies the
conceptual and normative dilemma of
how scarce resource is to be
distributed.
 How to ensure justice for all?
Justice in Water Use
 Looking at the Thai Eastern Seaboard
case, it is clear that there is a conflict
between the industry and the villagers.
 Water has seemed to become a
commodity.
 This idea has been strongly resisted in
Thailand.
Water as Commodity
 However, it may be a time to rethink
this issue.
 The worry is that, if water is classified
as commodity, then the rich will be
able to get a lot of it.
 If water now, then what? Do we then
have to pay for air?
 But what is the alternative?
The Buddhist Perspective
 As with the other religions, Buddhism does
not consist of a single, coherent set of
teaching that is subscribed by everybody.
 One needs interpretation, but the core
needs to be maintained.
 In this case, the idea of interdependence of
all things is key, but it is not sufficient.
Interdependence of All Things
 The most that this doctrine can establish, in
case of water management, is that we are
dependent on water and water is also
dependent on some things else.
 But this, apart from certain deep
metaphysical issues, is a common place idea.
 We need to go further.
How to Live Together
 We also need the way on how people
live with one another.
 One way is to divide the water equally,
but that does not take into account the
needs.
 But how to measure the needs of the
various parties?
Competing Rights
 How to decide if the basic life and
death issue has been cleared up.
 Right to life is the most basic. Without
water one cannot live, but there are
also uses of water for making a living.
 In this case, how to choose from among
these competing rights?
Buddhist Viewpoint
 Neither utilitarian nor deontological
perspective is adequate.
 What more is required is that the
decision be made with compassion.
 This means to take the interests of
others to be more important than one’s
own.
Water Distribution
 Altruism should be the basis for
distribution of water and other scarce
resource, rather than abstract
principles of justice.
 Justice consists in taking ‘the bird’s
eye view’
 This means all the interests need to be
taken into consideration.