THAI GOVT LOSING RACE TO PREVENT FLOODS
BANGKOK, Thailand - Following news that many projects had been delayed, the Federation of Thai Industries yesterday urged the government to speed up construction to prevent a repeat of last year's flood.Environment experts said ongoing construction projects, including dykes to protect industrial areas from overflowing waterways, would not be sufficient to prevent floods.
- The federation also asked the government to hasten efforts towards rehabilitation and compensation payments for businesses affected by last year's flood.
- "We have doubts about the government's measures to prevent flooding this year as many construction works still face delays, especially the dykes to prevent flood water inundating industrial parks," said the Federation's vice president, Tanit Sorat.
- He was speaking at a seminar titled "Flood, Earthquake and Drought: Will Thailand overcome disasters?" organised by Bangchak Petroleum and Krungthep Turakij newspaper.
- "I am not sure the ongoing dyke construction will protect us from flooding this year," he said.
Sorat added that government efforts to aid industry's recovery from damage caused by last year's flood were also too slow."The government's bank set up measures to help us only four months ago and has not given us much money," he said.
"The government should be building infrastructure to create confidence among investors, who remain afraid of possible flooding and have little confidence in the government's measures," he said.
- Auto and camera lens manufacturers were the industries most affected by last year's flood and the damage had knock-on effects for global production, Tanit said. Jeeraphan Assawathanakul, president of the General Insurance Association, said the insurance business and its consumers needed to rethink their strategies in the wake of the Bt400 billion to Bt500 billion in flood damage last year.
- The flood was listed among the globe's top 10 most costly disasters ever and prompted insurers to tighten their pay-out policies.
- Some relief for victims came recently when the government set up a Bt50-billion disaster insurance fund.
- Royol Chitdon, director of the Hydro and Agro Informatics Institute, said the government needed to spend more on construction to prevent future floods.
- Over the past 12 months, water projects had seen only one-tenth of the investment put into road construction, he added.
- "All roads in Thailand are maintained every seven years but there is no such maintenance regime for waterways," he said.
Meanwhile, Thanawat Jarupongsa-kul, a lecturer at Chulalongkorn University's Unit for Disaster and Land Information Studies, said flood-prevention measures such as the dykes now being constructed around industrial parks and large rivers would not protect the areas from flooding.These areas will be submerged by rainfall and then become huge sinks that will retain water.
Instead of attempting to block floods, he said the government should remove obstacles to the natural flow of flood water.
THAILAND CAPITAL CONFRANTS WORST FLOODS IN DECADES
BANGKOK, Thailand – Since previous weeks, the wrath of floods in fabulous Thailand, continues. A key test is expected in mid-October, when large amounts of run-off water reach the capital and high tides make it harder for the floods to flow out to sea.Canals have been drained to allow for excessive water flow and sandbags have been piled up around the city. The main canals have been drained and troops are digging out other canals to help water flow out to sea.
Officials in charge of managing the floods say they plan to divert the water through canals to the east and west of Bangkok and then out to the sea- Officials say the next few days are critical as high tides and bad weather combine with the arrival of run-off water from northern Thailand.
- North and central provinces have until now borne the brunt of the floods. Entire villages have been completely submerged and more than 280 people have been killed since the flooding began in late July, triggered by heavy monsoon rains.
Thai military and civilian volunteers are continuing their efforts to try and stop Thailand's worst floods in decades from inundating the capital, Bangkok.Teams of troops and volunteers have been racing to fill sandbags to fortify existing dykes and protect homes and businesses in the capital.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said her government was focused on keeping flood waters away from key areas.- "We will protect strategic areas and the heart of the economy such as industrial zones, the central part of all provinces and the Thai capital as well as [the main international] airport, industrial estates and evacuation centres," she said.
Shops in some parts of the capital are running short of supplies because of a rash of panic buying as well as disruption to distribution networks, the BBC's Rachel Harvey reports. Some people have parked their cars on the upper levels of multi-storey car parks.- Officials have predicted that water levels will be at their highest in the low-lying
capital between 16 and 18 October. - Worapat Tianprasit, at the Royal Irrigation Department, said water levels in the city's main Chao Phraya River had risen to 2.27m above sea level on Saturday morning at high tide, which was lower than expected.
- Reassurances that central Bangkok will be spared the worst is of little comfort to those living in the outskirts of the city, or in surrounding provinces which have already been hit by the deluge, our correspondent says.
Thailand's economy has been disrupted by the weeks of flooding, with many factories - including Japanese carmakers Toyota and Honda - forced to suspend production because of damage to facilities or disruption to local supply chains.The city of Ayutthaya, a World Heritage site which is home to temples and monuments, has also been badly affected.
Source: Agency, BBC
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