77 dead in Oct alone; govt struggling to respond to annual problem: Experts
Nirmal Ghosh Indochina Bureau Chief In Bangkok Straits Times 26 Oct 13;
IN ITS worst floods in 50 years caused by heavy rain and overflowing dams, eastern Thailand has seen 600,000ha of farmland in more than 20 provinces inundated and 77 people die this month.
This follows floods in 2011 that claimed 800 lives and inundated eight industrial parks just north of Bangkok, dealing a heavy blow to Thailand's export sector.
But the country is still groping for a response to the annual flooding cycle which, with erratic weather caused by global warming and overbuilding of urban infrastructure in low-lying flood plains, is only likely to get worse, said experts.
Government agencies and experts are wasting time arguing instead of basing decisions on sound scientific data, said one of the country's top climate scientists, Dr Anond Snidvongs, director of the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency.
"We have to consider investing more to cope. But if we base our future on personal opinion and arguing against one another, it is not going to work. We need the data. But nobody really wants to discuss this, it's all personal opinion and emotion," he said.
The government launched a 350 billion baht (S$13.9 billion) national water management scheme last year, but it is still in the early stages and has run into opposition from many sectors, including local communities who do not want more dikes and dams.
Meanwhile this month, heavy rain from a tropical typhoon, on top of monsoon rains that fall from June to October, caused rivers like the Chi river in Chaiyaphum to overflow.
On Wednesday, the Moon river in Nakhon Ratchasima burst its banks, inundating rice-growing areas and houses in the north-eastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima.
The province of Chachoengsao, east of Bangkok, has been badly affected by waters from the Bang Pakong river and runoff from an overflowing upstream dam.
"People living near the river are in water up to their necks; it is higher even than in 2011," Chachoengsao Member of Parliament Thitima Chaisang told The Straits Times over the phone. "Industry is safe, but pig farms, rice farms and mango orchards have been affected," she added.
And last week, in an echo of 2011, Thailand's largest industrial park was partially flooded after 10 hours of heavy rain.
Located east of Bangkok, the Amata Nakorn Industrial Estate where around 700 factories provide close to 200,000 jobs, is in a low-lying area about 3km from the sea. It escaped the 2011 floods unscathed, but this time, 17 factories had to shut down for a day and a half when workers could not commute.
Government ministers, worried about Thailand's credibility with foreign investors, rushed to the park.
Army units were deployed to help create sandbag walls and pump water out.
To help factories stay open, the army also sent about 30 buses and trucks to ferry workers to and from flooded communities in the surrounding countryside.
Industrial park director Viboon Kromadit said no production lines were affected by the water. He added that the cost of the flood control operations had yet to be assessed.
He blamed road works and a dam under construction for blocking the flow of water to the sea.
Speaking to The Straits Times at the park on Wednesday, Minister for Industry Prasert Boonchaisuk agreed. "What we need to do… is build concrete walls or dikes as high as 60cm to 1m," he said.
And in a sign of the greater social and political complexities of the flood problem, Mr Viboon said: "We had to let some of the water into the park, using our roads as flood ways, to reduce the resentment of communities outside who would otherwise point at us and say we are privileged."
