Public Participation for Sustainable Solution of Water for Agriculture Scarcity Problems

Abstract

Water is an important factor of production especially water for agriculture. This indicates that agriculture has been a fundamental occupation of Thai society for a long time. Moreover, water scarcity is greatly essential especially for agriculture. However, the inadequate water is caused by the global warming crisis resulting in more intense drought. In addition, water shortage becomes increasingly severe and it frustrates farmers more intensely than it used to occur in the past. Thus, the Thai government formulated a strategy and endeavored to execute various water resource projects aiming at supplying water to arid land and supporting sufficient water resources. In the development of water resource projects for agriculture, one of the crucial obstacles is the opposition against water resource development projects from stakeholders especially those adversely affected. This leads to difficulties in continuing the execution of the beneficially potential project regarding a lack of effective participation in the government's projects. Besides, authorities carry unfavorable attitudes toward solving problems with wisdom. This article aims to present a sustainable solution                                             of water for agriculture scarcity problems through the participation of the people. Therefore, the author extracted the lessons learned from his experiences performing in conflicting communities by applying "Righteousness" in Buddhist doctrines to find potential solutions to water scarcity. The author presented a significant two-step approach to systematically and holistically assess the possible solutions with love and harmony based on a given principle of Buddhism bringing peace to all involved parties.