Questions/Answers

Nakhon Sawan Municipality, a city located in a lower terrain area by the river, a junction area where 4 major rivers of Thailand meet and its source of the Chao Phraya River. The great flood of 2011 damaged life and properties such tap water shortage, waste water, rotten garbage, air pollution, crime and lack of green area in city. Nakhon Sawan City Municipality as local administration to deliver public services to people, aware and realize to this problem that effected to residents. Nakhon Sawan City Municipality makes policies under its administration to manage and solve these problems, as follow; -Seeking of the cooperation among parties to set up flood preventing system, build the barriers along the river, to ensure that the great flood wouldn’t happen again. - Produce standard, clean and cheap tap water for all residents -Get rid of waste water and control the quality of waste water treatment regularly - get rid of waste and pollution from the beginning to the end treatment process. -set up the monitoring system on air quality at all the time. -installed CCTV throughout the city to control the crimes and solve traffic accident - Preserve green areas and water for parks by Gravity Flow water diversion. - Take care of health and wellness of people in all groups and ages equally.

The performance of Nakhon Sawan City Municipality administration in both prevent and solve the problems of the city. It must be transparency of public administration, effective in result, coverage in each dimension of safety by skillful personnel who sacrifice to work with high responsibility to serve people. Technology and innovation are adopted under the shortage of budget. People participation support our performance until we achieve sustainable development, the initiative is compatible with Category 2 to enhance the efficiency and achieve the Sustainable Development.

Set up flood protection system for a city, not push the burden to the poor to renovate their houses away from the flood, reduce the economic crisis from floods and protect the poor (SDGs 11.5), making city and people safe, secure and sustainable and ready for the change (SDGs 11), the climate and its impacts (SDG 13). Produce clean tap water that certifies the quality standard for drinkable tap water. People get the access to clean, safe and affordable drinking water. (SDGs 6.1), to ensure that water is available for all. (SDGs 6), increase the clean water usage and to ensure fresh water supplied is sustainable, react to water shortage (SDGs 6.4) Improve waste water quality, reduce waste water untreated more than 50%, increase water recycle (SDGs 6.3) A safe and accessible parks and green area of all ages, children, women, elder and disabilities (SDGs 11.7). applied the principles of good governance for sustainable development, promote a peaceful and undivided society where everyone has the right of justice. (SDGs16).

-Social dimension, A green area where everyone could access for relaxation and exercise to improve healthy condition and safety society without harmful, living together with peacefully. -Economic dimension, a safety city with public park for resident and tourists create income from tourism, investment trade and services that support and develop the local economy for a better and well-being life -Environmental dimension, waste and waste water treatment reduce pollution and the impact to environment, worth of reusable.

The performance of Nakhon Sawan City Municipality administration help government solved the crucial problems such barrier construction budget, effective regularly on waste water treatment, get rid of waste pollution from the beginning to the end without any side effect, monitoring on air pollution at all times, reduce crime and traffic accident by CCTV throughout the city. As for public services Nakhon Sawan City Municipality produce cheap and standardized tap water for households, conserve green area and public park all year by the innovation of water diversion, provide health care services to all equally and support housing through a community network. People participation is a key for all to access equally to public administration and public service, create a strong and fairness society that compatible with the concept of leaving no one behind.

Nakhon Sawan residents could access to the services equally, non-discriminatory such public restroom (for LGBTQ), mother and child equipment, Parking sign that giving the acknowledgement to society to accept and recognize the differential of gender. All kinds of gender are equally getting the public services, they could assure and get self-confident to take those services. This will help solve the problem of gender inequality in Thailand.

There are two groups: 1) The main target groups are the residents and latent population in Nakhon Sawan Municipality that populates about 120,000 persons, especially a sensitive and LGBTQ population. 2) Secondary target groups, are tourists, travelers and business people who visit or stay in Nakhon Sawan, local government organization government agencies, private sectors, students who visit for study tour approximately 30,000 persons per year. The performance of Nakhon Sawan City Municipality administration such water barrier, waste water and waste treatment, pollution elimination, monitoring and solving air pollution, reducing crime traffic accident, tap water, green spaces, public park, health care services and housing. These are the utility for all target groups, genders, ages, educations, and occupations and also for all people below Chao Phraya River area.

Nakhon Sawan Municipality built the dams and the barriers to prevent the flood around the city with the distance about 12.03 kilometers along the Ping River, supported by the Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning, every building is secure and strength to prevent the flood till these days. Improve and maintain the quality of water supply, sell to the public at the rate 3.50 baht per cubic meter, establish a ‘drinkable tap water’ service points that allows people to drink clean water at affordable price. According to a survey, 99.3% of households in the city municipality have sufficiency water supply. The quality of tap water is clean, safe, suitable for drinking. Certified by the drinking water quality criteria by Department of Health, criteria by The World Health Organization (WHO), criteria the standards of Thai Industrial Standards Institute No. 257-2006, people are confident to drink the water supplied by city municipality safely. Improve the quality of waste water 36,000 cubic meters per day, operate the treatment system smoothly and closely, collect a sample of the treated water for inspection monthly, the inspection is qualified the standard from the Pollution Control Department, water could be safely released and return to natural source of the Chao Phraya River. Instead of releasing to the river, conserves water for public park by reuse the waste water after treatment, that is qualified the standard to released and return to natural source, refill to Sawan Park and Yuan canal to feed the carps. The innovation of gravity flow is applied for clean energy and cost saving.

Preventing flooding in the city, the shortage of budget is a problem for Nakhon Sawan Municipality. It took 10 years to complete the project. the budget supported by the Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning. Tap water for people, there was a problem during the drought. The water level in the Ping River is very low and unable to pump up to produce tap water. The problem solved by dredging the river and extending the pumping point to the middle of the river. Waste water treatment, water treatment plants use sludge biological to improve the quality of water. It needs electrical and mechanical systems to operate, more personnel to manage. The problem is the criteria payment of Nakhon Sawan Municipality. it fixed by hiring employees annually. Preserve green areas of Sawan Park and Yuan Chuan Rak Canal, there was a problem with a huge dropping of the water level because of evaporation and seepage. This effected to the balance of the nature. It is fixed through water diversion by gravity flow through the pipes that laying under the ground to the Sawan Park and the Yuan Chuan Rak Canal.

Long-distance pipelines underground deliver a huge ton of water to Sawan Park and the Yuan Chuan Rak Canal, water diversion by gravity flow from higher to lower level cut the expenses for fuel of pumping water. It is the sustainable innovation for urban and community development. The Incremental Innovation has not yet applied in other local area but suitable for the limitation of administration in Thailand.

Sawan Park and the Yuan Chuan Rak Canal adopted from Cheong gye cheon canal, South Korea. Cheong gye cheon canal was a dirty with waste water and garbage from houses and communities along the canal. The canal has been restored by governor who strongly encouraged the project because of it need to expropriate the land from the community and demolished the high way. The landscape wad renovated and waste water was treated. Finally, the canal become an international outstanding landmark for tourist attraction, and become a good example for the restoration of Yuan Chuan Rak Canal, Nakhon Sawan Municipality.

Conserving water for the park, gravity flow is a methodological to flow water through long-distance water pipelines to Sawan Park and the Yuan Chuan Rak Canal. Gravitational potential energy drives water from higher to lower level without using any other energy. It’s a clean and friendly energy to environment, saved the cost, added the value to reuse waste water that benefit to society, environment and economy.

1. Broadcasted to various ASEAN countries, won the first prize in the 3rd ASEAN Environment Sustainable Cities Award 2014 (Water) organized by The ASEAN Working Group on Sustainable Urban Environment, through Thailand central coordinating agency, the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning. 2. Broadcasted to various provinces across the country in the 1st place awards ceremony for local government organizations with good management, in fiscal Year 2021, general category, large local administrative organizations, organized by the Committee for Decentralization of Local Government Organizations 3. Broadcasted to various provinces across the country in the awards ceremony, regional level for Environmentally Sustainable in 2018, for criteria in the Excellent Environmentally Sustainable Cities Project, win national Best Environmentally Sustainable Municipality Award in 2019 from the Department of Environmental Quality Promotion. 4. to be a host every year for the meetings and workshops to enhance the knowledge, understanding and increasing the capacity of local administrative organizations according to the criteria for sustainable environmental by the Office of the Environment Region 4.

The performance of Nakhon Sawan City Municipality administration, by gravity flow to deliver water through long-distance pipelines underground to destination area, is a good example to adapted and applied to other local and communities in Thailand. Nakhon Sawan Municipality is a learning center for conserving water and energy management. Its potential could deliver a real working station, large conference rooms, hi-tech multimedia equipment with large digital screen, skillful personnel who have direct experiences and theories to lecture and demonstrate in teleconference via video conference or e-Meeting during the Covid-19 situation. This is the visions and policies of the Mayor of Nakhon Sawan who would like to publicize and support the similar innovation to other local government organizations, government agencies and private sectors according to the concept of leaving no one behind.

Flood protection spend 1,600 million Baht Tap water spend 220 million Baht for tap water plant excluding the main water pipeline, operating and maintenance is about ..... million Baht / year. Waste water treatment, spend 715.5 million Baht for building a water quality improvement plant excluding the cost of laying the drainage and waste water pipes, operating and maintenance 14.5 million Baht per year. Conserving water for the park, spend 20.6 million Baht for road construction – underpass pipes, renovated the landscape and build irrigation system 2.04 million Baht.

All budget for the dam and barrier, tap water plant and a water quality improvement plant is a permanent investment. Everything is completed. The cost of the operation such operation and maintenance, personnel, machine and materials shall rely upon the budgets from annually expenditure under the Municipality Act B.E. 2496, amended No. 13, B.E. 2552 (2009). Moreover, there are the cooperation from the government agencies, private sectors and other organizations in municipality area to support the maintenance.

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1.rewarded (Water) from the 3rd ASEAN Environment Sustainable Cities Award 2014. 2. Won the first prize from the Board of Decentralization to Local Administrative Organizations for local administrative organization with good management, 2021, general category, large local administrative organizations. 3.honored in excellent sustainable environment city at the regional level in 2018, won the best sustainable environmental municipality in 2019 from Department of Environmental Quality Promotion, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

Indicators and tools for the assessment 1. ASEAN Award for Sustainable Cities Environment (Water), 3 indicators are Air, waste water and Waste and Green Space. 2. Awarded for local government organization with good management Large local government organizations. 2 indicators are administration and local innovation. 3. Awarded for regional sustainable environment city and national sustainable environment municipality, 6 indicators for assessment: well-being city, happy people, sustainable environment, learning municipality, good administration and innovation for urban development.

The results from assessment; Dam and barrier, water quality improvement plant and tap water plants need the budget from government and the decision making from a visionary leader on a reasonable resource management through the performance. The municipality shall respond to management and maintenance that requires a very high volume of the budget per year in order to obtain efficiency and quality of management for public service. However, municipality could manage water for communities and environment effectively under budget shortage and limited resources and maintain its goals to sustainable development for people till these days. The challenging situation for municipalities is COVID-19 epidemic that damages lives, properties, and economy, a huge impact on municipal income, higher demand for tap water and the increasing of amount of waste water entering into the system, high cost of the operation on energy and electricity for tap water plant and waste water treatment.

Internal departments. There is the Municipal Office /Division/Department e.g. the Office of Technician, the office of Finance, etc. The administration is divided by the tasks and responsibilities according to law and regulations, integration of working in their own administration form such as architect or committee under the legal such inspection committee or ad hoc committee by the authority. External agencies. Other external agencies operate in municipality area such as the Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning, the government unit that supported local development and city planning. A big project needs high budget, skillful technician, hi-technology that exceed the capacity of local administration to operate such as the survey to study the reasonable to design the drainage and flood prevention systems. The municipality joined the inspection committee. By the authority of the governor, the Department of Local Administration of Nakhon Sawan Province has the authorization to control the municipality directly.

Nakhon Sawan Municipality as a host and operator, there are government agencies, private sectors and stakeholders who support the mission as; Nakhon Sawan Province by the authority of governor. Department of Local Government Promotion, Ministry of Interior as a direct control to local administration. Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning supported the education, design and construction. Regional Environmental Office 4 and Provincial Office of Natural Resources and Environment Nakhon Sawan supported technical and the inspection on environment, garbage, waste water and air. Protected Areas Regional Office 12 and Nakhon Sawan Fisheries Provincial Office supported biology technical, plant and fish. People, latent population, communities, private sectors, companies, business, housing in municipality area. They are the main target groups who get the direct benefit and impacts. Tourists and business men who enter the area, local government organizations, government agencies, private sectors, students, study groups. They are secondary groups who get the benefit not impact. Residents in southern area of Nakhon Sawan Municipality, they are maybe affected directly and indirectly.

The important lesson learned is The decision to select flood protection system to build the dam and barrier siege the city. It’s high cost of investment and operation in the beginning but it’s a high profit to handle the flooding, no bigger flood since then. Produce clean, cheap, quality and stability tap water. It needs raw water sources from the Nan River to assure any risky in the future. Instead of releasing waste water to the river, it needs to improve the quality of waste water regularly through the management and maintenance to reuse it for conserve the green area and public park. The Gravity Flow water diversion is a valuable methodology to serve. In summary, sustainable management and development in city have to focus on the efficiency of agencies, supporting, integration, collaboration through the existing strategies and technologies in order to create the innovation