Questions have been mounting over the Royal Irrigation Department (RID)'s water-management plans from farm owners who "agreed" in mid-October to allow floodwater to be diverted onto their lands to "save Bangkok".

Owners complain that the RID flooded their land, but did not drain it afterwards and failed to give them proper information.

Chawalit Boonmee, a resident of Ayutthaya's Bang Ban district, believes that if the irrigation authorities had made proper plans to cope with the overflow of water from the North, his three rai of land would not have been so badly submerged.

"I don't understand why the irrigation department did not release water stored in big dams long before the arrival of Xangsane," said Chawalit, referring to the typhoon that hit Thailand in early October.

When the Xangsane typhoon hit the Philippines in late September, the Bhumibol, Sirikit, Chao Phya and Pasak Jolasit dams were already at full capacity from torrential monsoon rains that hit northern Thailand from early that month.

Chawalit believed if the dams had reduced their water levels before Xangsane hit the country on October 2, it would have been unnecessary to flood the central plains.

Chawalit lost all his longan and mango trees to the flood and had to leave the first floor of his home when it was inundated with 1.2 metres of water in early October. The waters only completely receded two weeks ago.

Head of the RID, Samart Chokkanapitak, argued that his department did in fact reduce the water levels in its Chao Phya and Pasak Jolasit dams - and also asked Egat to flush water from its Bhumibol and Sirikit dams.

"The problem is that the heavy downpours occurred behind the dams, not in the reservoir areas," he said in a telephone interview.

Samart said that if the Yom River - a major river in the North which joins the Ping, Wang and Nan Rivers in Nakhon Sawan to form the Chao Phya - was dammed, the situation in the Chao Phya basin would not have been so bad.

Samart said water was diverted to the central plains not because it was beyond the ability of his department to control water in the Chao Phya River basin, but because owners of the land volunteered to allow their land to be flooded, as they wanted to help protect the capital.

On October 12, one day after His Majesty the King granted permission for the RID to divert water from Chao Phya River basin onto his land in Ayutthaya's Thung Makham Yong and Thung Phu Khao Thong areas to help absorb the deluge before it flooded Bangkok, Samart claimed that residents in the nearby areas agreed to allow the RID to divert a huge volume of water on to their own farmland - to follow His Majesty's initiative.

But Boonnoi Kuamontri, a 42-year-old resident of Ayutthaya's Pak Hai district said: "It was not done on a volunteer basis. No one came and asked our opinion, we were only informed by the

municipality that the RID

would be diverting water onto our land."

Boonnoi, who is disabled, said his family's land was part of Thung Chao Ched, one of 18 areas of the central plains where the RID diverted water to.

Boonnoi said he was willing to follow the initiative of His Majesty, but the RID should at least have given people time to prepare themselves.

"What kind of request to be a volunteer was this? We were informed in the evening, and when we got up the next morning we were surrounded by water," said Boonnoi, who questioned that if the RID was so expert in water management why did it not inform them about water diversion plans long before they flooded their land.

The same thing happened to farmers in Sena district.

Thurian Kamphaengthong, a 63 year-old rice farmer, said no one had informed her that her farmland - located in Thung Sena - would be used as a water retention area.

"I heard on the TV news that my land was included," she said, adding that she did not have enough time to harvest her

rice paddy grown on her five rai plot.

Further doubts over the RID's abilities were also voiced by an orchid grower in Suphan Buri. Suchart Dokrak said although he was informed about the plan to divert water onto his orchid, local irrigation authorities failed to tell him how much water would be diverted.

His 10-rai orchid and 40 rai of fish ponds and orchard areas were swamped by three-metres of water. He still has no idea how the RID will drain the water off his land.

RID chief Samart said it was impossible for his department to calculate the quantity of water in such situations, adding that the water came not only from the irrigation system's diversion programme, but was also overflow from the Chao Phya and the Tha Chin rivers.

He also blamed a broken earth dam in Sing Buri as a major source of additional water inundating the farmlands.

According to Samart, only 500 million cubic metres of water were diverted from the irrigation system, the rest was overflow from the two rivers.

He said his agency was not to blame in this case and asked that the public understand the situation and for flood victims to be patient.

Pennapa Hongthong

Suphan Buri, Ayutthaya