At the same time His Majesty realises that the majority of rural Thais are farmers, who produce food for the world, and that water is an essential factor for agriculture and for life, as reflected in his royal speech that “water is life”. Indeed, of the total of about 3,000 projects, at least one-third are royal–initiated water resources development projects. Most of the water resources development projects stress water for agriculture and for consumption as their main objectives, with other additional objectives such as conserving the watersheds, producing hydro-electricity, draining water from lowlands to alleviate floods, and solving the problems associated with polluted and contaminated water as well. His Majesty follows-up on all the steps involved in water resources development, namely:

If water is lacking, it must be provided by constructing reservoirs, dams, and weirs in order to have water for agriculture and for consumption.

If there is a serious flood, it must be alleviated by constructing effective water-gates to drain and collect water for use when needed, or setting up a project like the Kaem Ling Project to collect rainwater for use.

If the water is polluted, water management must be done through the royal initiative of conducting research on water treatment employing simple methods such as using water hyacinth or vetiver grass, as well as using the Chaipattana Aerator, which won an international award from the Belgian Chamber of Investors, Europe 's oldest intuition of invention, in November 2000.

Those involved with carrying out His Majesty's development projects have mentioned that his subjects' welfare is always on his mind. The royal speech on 29 December 1989 reveals that he is also concerned about the environment and the world population.