Legal and Institutional Feasibility of Establishing the Eastern Coast River Basin Office as a Public Organization

Abstract

Thailand's transition toward basin-based water governance has advanced through the Water Resources Act and the establishment of river basin committees. However, the operational backbone at basin level, a dedicated basin office with adequate legal personality, authority, and administrative flexibility, remains underdeveloped. This article investigates (1) the legal and institutional problems and constraints, and (2) the feasibility of establishing the Eastern Coast River Basin Office as a public organization, while identifying legal reform proposals required to make such institutionalization workable. The study employs doctrinal legal research combined with policy-institutional analysis by reviewing relevant primary legislation, secondary legislation, and cross-sectoral legal regimes that intersect with basin management, including water law, special economic development law, town planning law, disaster prevention law, forestry and land law, and local government law. The findings indicate that the key barriers are not merely administrative but structural: fragmented mandates across agencies, limited delegation and enforceability of basin-level decisions, misalignment between basin plans and sectoral/territorial planning instruments, and the absence of a basin-level juristic entity capable of administering budgets, personnel, procurement, data integration, and regulatory tools such as permits and water charges. Feasibility analysis suggests two principal legal pathways: (i) amending the core water law to explicitly enable a basin office as a public organization and adjusting related provisions on regional administrative structures; and (ii) adopting an interim reorganization approach through secondary legislation while concurrently preparing a public organization instrument under the applicable public organization framework. This article contributes new knowledge by proposing an institutional design logic that bridges the gap between multiple laws but lacking institutional linkage through a basin office as a “bridging institution.” The article synthesizes findings into a problem–constraint–proposal matrix and four operational principles, such as Legal Personality First, Plan–Budget Linkage, Cross-sector Integration by Design, and Accountable Flexibility, to guide policymakers in establishing a basin office that is both flexible and accountable under public law.