A water diversion project that China is funding in Thailand is raising eyebrows
Plans for a new water diversion project in Thailand are alarming environmentalists. And a Chinese state-owned firm offered to finance it, raising flags with those who fear China’s growing influence.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
In Thailand, plans for an ambitious water diversion project are raising lots of questions from environmentalists and from others who question a Chinese state-run company’s offer to pay for it. Michael Sullivan reports.
MICHAEL SULLIVAN, BYLINE: The Thai parliament sits on the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, and that’s where I meet the project’s chief proponent.
VEERAKORN KAMPRAKOB: I’m Mr. Veerakorn Kamprakob, the chairman of the subcommittee of Chao Phraya watershed.
SULLIVAN: And that watershed, he says, has a problem – not enough water for agriculture or industry or to combat saltwater intrusion from the Gulf of Thailand.
KAMPRAKOB: Right now, we are in the situation that we don’t have the water for what we need.
MICHAEL SULLIVAN
