Thailand In Hurry To Put Flood Defenses In Place

Ploy Ten Kate PlanetArk 20 Jan 12;

Thailand is racing to implement water management schemes costing 300 billion baht ($9.4 billion) to prevent a repeat of last year's flood disaster, but companies want to see even more haste while some experts say things shouldn't be rushed.

Thailand's worst flooding in at least five decades forced the closure of seven industrial estates in central provinces from October last year, causing billions of dollars of damage and putting about 650,000 people temporarily out of work.

Many factories have still not reopened but industrialists are already worrying about the next rainy season, barely four months away, and want the government to start acting on specific, concrete plans rather than outline broad ideas.

"We still have faith in the government and what they're trying to achieve," said Setsuo Iuchi, president of JETRO Thailand, the local arm of Japan External Trade Organization.

"I rather believe that people want to be here and keep on investing but, yes, we can't deny that more clear-cut actions by the government have to be made."

Companies like Hana Microelectronics Pcl and Aapico Hitech Pcl, whose plants were inundated, have called on the government to come up with both short-term remedies and long-term solutions to prevent future floods.

Only one or two companies, such as U.S.-based chip maker ON Semiconductor Corp, have said they are closing facilities completely after suffering from the floods.

Some big names have announced sizable investments to either restore old plants or build new ones.

This week alone, Toyota Motor Corp said it would spend 8.2 billion baht to build a new plant and restart one closed in 2010, and fellow Japanese firm Minebea Co Ltd, a bearing maker, said it would invest $75 million to build a new plant.

PLAN TAKES SHAPE

Deputy Prime Minister and incoming Finance Minister Kittirat Na Ranong outlined water management plans last weekend involving seven projects, including flood prevention measures along the Chao Phraya river that flows from the north and through Bangkok.

It involves reforestation, the construction of dams and reservoirs and city planning. "We have to move quickly. This cannot wait," he said.

One of the seven projects is a 10 billion baht plan to plant trees and build dikes along upstream tributaries of the Chao Phraya. Another, costing 50 billion baht, involves the construction of reservoirs in the river basins where the floods developed.

Other projects include the building of floodways in 2 million rai (800,000 acres) of farmland plus irrigation systems, the cleaning-up of canals and waterways and establishing a data system for water management.

Some 120 billion baht is earmarked for the construction of floodways and flood diversion channels, with work this year involving the improvement of dikes, sluice gates and canals.

"I'm not that confident these projects would work," said Chaiyuth Sukhsri, head of the Water Resources Engineering Department at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

"The time period for formulating this plan is very, very short. It usually takes a lot of time to analyze these things," he said, adding that the social impact of the plans seemed to have been ignored completely.

Even so, Chaiyuth noted that rains could be heavy this year because of the La Nina effect.

Some analysts say erratic climate patterns are complicating things for policymakers.

For example, it is becoming more difficult for dam managers to make judgments based on previous weather patterns. Water discharged too late and in huge volume from northern dams was, for some analysts, a big factor behind the disaster last year.

DIKES AROUND ESTATES

Last week the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT), under the Ministry of Industry, outlined a plan to build permanent dikes up to 6.5 meters (21 feet) high around the seven industrial estates forced to shut by floods last year.

"We now have a plan for building a permanent dike designed by the Engineering Institute of Thailand using statistics of flooding events in the past 100 years," Vithoon Simachokdee, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Industry said.

Each estate will adapt the proposed dike to its own circumstances and can apply for loans from the Government Savings Bank, which has a credit line of 15 billion baht offering loans at 0.01 percent over seven years.

The aim is for the work to be completed in August, Vithoon said.

Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul, chairwoman of Toshiba Corporation's Thai unit, said the Bangkadi industrial estate, of which she is also chairwoman, would have a dike up to 6 meters high in place in September. Last year it was inundated with up to 4.3 meters of floodwater.

"Flood-affected companies and industrial estates are doing what they can to defend themselves better, but of course we can't do it entirely without the government's help," Kobkarn said.

"If the factories and industrial estates are safe from floods but our staff's homes are submerged, they won't be able to come to work anyway. We need the government to support us," she said.

Toshiba had to halt operations at nine of its 10 production plants at Bangkadi and one in Nava Nakorn Pcl estate in Pathum Thani province in the north of Bangkok. It may take a year for some to be up and running again.

(Additional reporting by Pisit Changplayngam; Editing by Alan Raybould)

Thailand unveils $12 billion plan to fight floods
Nirmal Ghosh Straits Times 21 Jan 12;

BANGKOK: Thailand yesterday unveiled a much-awaited 'masterplan' to prevent a repeat of the massive floods that devastated the country last year, with Premier Yingluck Shinawatra pledging an integrated approach beginning from the 'first drop of rain' in the north.

The 300 billion baht (S$12 billion) plan involves scores of short-, medium- and long-term projects, including the cleaning of canals in Bangkok, reforestation of water catchment areas, and building of new dykes and reservoirs.

The Thai government hopes that these measures will prevent another disaster like the one seen last September and October, when an emergency release of water from capacity-filled reservoirs in the north resulted in massive flooding down the central plains and the Bangkok area. It left more than 600 people dead, cost the country some 1.43 trillion baht, inundated over half a dozen industrial estates and dented investor confidence.

'This is intended to create confidence for the people, farmers, business sector and investors in industrial estates affected,' Ms Yingluck told a press conference.

'In the short term, the goal is to decrease the level of damage from possible floods in 2012. In the long term, the goal is to improve the flood management system in an integrated and sustainable way.'

The masterplan emphasises an inte- grated approach. A new national topographical map, for instance, will be drawn up to provide water managers with up-to-date information that was lacking last year.

Reforestation will address the issue of forest depletion, which has contributed to faster-than-usual water runoff in catchment forests in the north and which caused reservoirs to fill rapidly.

In the north, the masterplan will focus on holding back water and delaying severe floods, while in the south, it revolves around new reservoirs, dykes and floodways.

In Bangkok, which narrowly escaped massive flooding last year, the drainage system will be overhauled, new floodways built east and west of the city to divert water from it, and some city roads adapted for use as temporary drainage canals when required.

And in industrial estates, roads will be reinforced to act as dykes, and pumping stations will be installed. The government intends to focus on 'self-sufficient flood prevention', offering low-interest loans to fund the works, while also creating a 50 billion baht insurance fund.

Meanwhile, an independent committee on water management will be set up with a 'single command' to ensure an integrated approach, said Ms Yingluck. Last year, her greenhorn administration was criticised for its haphazard response to the crisis, with officials contradicting each other over the situation and the measures needed.

Mr Pitipong Phuengboon Na Ayudhaya, a member of the committee that drew up the masterplan, said the Premier 'should have authority even over the local authorities' - an indirect reference to disagreements between the government and Bangkok's opposition-run city administration, which had hampered the response.

Investors - particularly Japanese businesses who were hit the hardest - will no doubt be studying the masterplan in coming days.

Dr Smith Thammasaroj, a former meteorological department and disaster management chief, however, raised concerns about some of the short-term plans.

'The rainy season will be here in three months,' he said. 'There's not enough time to do anything. And all these long-term measures take time, maybe two to three years.'