The Floods of 2011

[Takiap]

They could have moved their gear to Bofai seeing that we're experiencing a drought......already no municipal water for days on end, and the rain season has only just ended.

[hhfarang]

As with most countries these days, this one is run by a bunch of idiot politicians who have no clue.... it's just that this one is worse than some, but also better than others (not many, but a few).

[PeteC]

In many places things are not really any better, despite decreasing news coverage and less focus by the government. It appears the areas that are still flooded and the people in them will be left to fend for themselves, while FROC continues to celebrate victory. Pete

http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opin ... is-thaksin

Froc should not pack up its office just yet

Prime Ministers Secretariat official Khun Anurak Khajonrit and his colleagues at Froc are entitled to feel proud of their aid efforts to help so many deeply distressed flood victims. It is noble work. They have our thanks and gratitude.

It is however alarming to read Khun Anurak being quoted as saying their work at the Froc is complete. In Sai Mai, Sukhaphiban 5 we are still flooded out of our homes. My own soi has been restricted to boat-only transport since October 26 and remains so to date. My neighbours remaining to brave out the flood have had no assistance of any kind from anybody. Tens of thousands of others have the same problem. We need help from somebody to pump the water out. If the Froc is sending signals that the floods are over it is to be hoped that others involved in flood relief are not so misguided.

Now is the time to intensify relief operations and not wind them down. With all this static and fetid water around and most sanitary disposal systems out of order there has to be great danger of disease outbreak. Big bags will not prevent cholera from spreading to inner Bangkok. Everybody is at risk.

Meanwhile, those of us fortunate enough to be able to take refuge in the provinces have come to rely upon Channel 3's Sorayut Suthasanajinda's programme to keep us informed. We admire and applaud his work, while out getting his feet wet for nights on end and showing us the footage of people's sufferings. It has been superb TV reporting, done with humour and compassion, devoid of hype and just telling it like it is. Mr Sorayut is my media man of the year.

THAMRONG THAMRATANACHAI
Bangkok

[a3r1us]

Just been to the flooded areas in bkk. it seems even cleaner than before.

[margaretcarnes]

I left Bangkok last Sunday by train to come up to NongKhai. The immediate city outskirts around BangSue certainly do look cleaner than early in the month. But get further north towards Phitsanaluk and the amount of water still standing is covering huge areas. Difficult to tell how much should be there for paddy and how much is excess - but the houses do seem fairly clear of it while at the same time isolated road wise IYSWIM!
Beyond there and around Udon is clear thankfully.
I suppose Yingluck will claim to have achieved the aim of getting houses dry - even though the owners have done all the hard slog. It's very sad that the whole thing has now slipped off the media radar, but why should Yingluck worry? She's acheived her main aim, which had nothing to do with flooding.

[PeteC]

Maybe I should start a new thread now, "The Floods of 2012"? If it started raining today, the floods would likely start all over again. Story and charts below. Pete

Smith warns of dam peril
Fears grow of another massive flood disaster

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/2 ... -dam-peril

[sateeb]

Some people would argue that the "elite" are doing this in the hope of further flooding and the eventual downfall of the current Government. To quote Francis Urquart...."You might think that,I could not possibly comment"

[hhfarang]

I was told that what neighborhoods got flooded and which ones didn't was purely political and totally unnecessary. Areas containing a lot of housing developments inhabited by rich yellow supporters were allowed to flood as retribution by the red controlled government. When the government decided they had been punished enough, two meters of water disappeared in one day leaving whole estates of homes worth from 22m to 50m baht ruined.

[Winkie]

Hi HHF

You may have been told that, but do you beleive it?

[hhfarang]

Don't know whether I do or not. I was told that by a couple (who lived in one of those neighborhoods) while they were looking at my house as a possible way to escape it ever happening to them again... they and (according to them) their neighbors believed it. Their home was 2.5 meters deep in water containing acid and corrosive chemicals for over a month and then one day it all went away in a few hours.

I did see video of their neighborhood that they took from a boat and it was all huge modern homes in a very hi so development. They had bought the house only 4 months ago and one of the biggest insurers in Thailand will only pay them 100,000 baht in damages even though the home my never be habitable again. Very sad.

[Nereus]

This says a lot about the people running this country:

.............................................................................................
Democrats slam govt 'thank you' party

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/2 ... -you-party

The Democrats have attacked the government for planning a party to thank members of the Flood Relief Operations Command and others who battled last year's crisis, saying tens of thousands of flood victims have yet to receive promised assistance.

Prime Minister's Office permanent secretary Thongthong Chandrangsu announced the celebration on Monday.

Privy Council president Prem Tinsulanonda has accepted an invitation to the party which is intended to thank Froc staff for their contribution to efforts to alleviate the crisis, Mr Thongthong said.

Others invited include heads of government offices and the presidents of the Federation of Thai Industries and the Thai Chambers of Commerce.

The party will be held at Government House on Friday from 5pm to 8pm, he said.

The opposition Democrat Party immediately criticised the government, asking why it felt the need to thank Froc staff when more than 100,000 flood-hit people have still not received the 5,000 baht assistance promised, and many localities are still under water

Democrat spokesman Chavanont Intarakomalyasut said the planned party showed the government was satisfied with Froc's performance despite the loss of 815 lives and 1.4 trillion baht in damage to the country's economy caused by the floods.

The party sends a signal to the people that the government feels there were no shortcomings in Froc's performance even though there were clear irregularities in the distribution of relief supplies and interference by government MPs in the work of state officials, Mr Chavanont said.

He said there was further concern that current water levels at various major dams were alarmingly high, but the government still had no concrete plans for water management.

[PeteC]

Quite a good picture of a badly swollen Chao Praya river. Don't know when it was taken but attached to an article today, link below. I think it must be a few months ago, not now. Pete

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/nationa ... 75318.html

[Nereus]

Thai floods set to cost Lloyd's $US2.2bn

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/busine ... s-us2-2bn/

The Thailand floods look set to cost Lloyd's of London $US2.2 billion ($A2.07 billion), the insurer's third-biggest loss after Hurricane Katrina and 9/11.

Combined estimates from other insurance groups have already put total cost of Thai natural disaster at up to $US20 billion, the Guardian reported on its website.

Lloyd's said in a statement reported by Bloomberg that the actual net claims from the floods "may vary from this preliminary estimate".

Initial estimates of the damage costs of $US10 billion from the floods - which began in July and inundated large swaths of the country's centre and northeast before finally subsiding in December - have risen steadily, Reuters reported.

The floods disabled factories operated by major Japanese and US multinationals, according to the news service, "triggering a shortage of components in the car and electronics industries".

According to Bloomberg, the Thai floods together with the Japan earthquake and tsunami, the New Zealand earthquake and tornados in the US cost insurers about $US105 billion last year, making it the industry's most expensive year on record.

Previously, the record year was $US101 billion paid out in 2005, the year Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans.

Lloyd's said it was financially strong enough to absorb the third-biggest payout in its 324-year history.

"The Lloyd's market is as well capitalised as it has ever been," chief executive Richard Ward said in a statement on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

"Our priority remains to assess and settle valid claims as swiftly as we can. Paying these claims is within the normal course of business for Lloyd's."

[PeteC]

Govt to build big dam on seismic fault

http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opin ... smic-fault

Published: 16/02/2012 at 02:50 AM
Newspaper section: News

Building a big dam on an active earthquake fault. Isn't that plain crazy?

Destroying more than 60,000 rai of lush forest cover which includes the country's last golden teak reserves, in order to prevent floods when deforestation actually causes flooding. Isn't that plain silly?

No matter what we think, the Yingluck administration has its mind set on building the environmentally destructive Kaeng Sua Ten dam in Phrae province.

Actually, all governments in the past two decades have wanted to do the exact same thing. Obviously, for the many people involved, the teak concessions and the dam commissions were too tempting to resist.

But fierce resistance from the Sa-iab villagers in Phrae's Song district and environmental groups forced them to back down every time.

The 2011 mega flood and the subsequent scare of inundation has made the government believe it can easily win this time around.

Last year, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra tried to stem opposition by promising that integrated river basin management was her priority, not dam building.

Few locals believed her. And they are now being proved right.

Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong made it loud and clear that Kaeng Sua Ten was now for real.

"I'm ready to confront every NGO. I want to ask them where on earth they hai hua [hid their heads] during the flood, and why they didn't come out to help the flood victims?"

This confrontational remark comes from a cabinet minister who cried like a child for TV audiences while hugging an industrialist, after failing to protect an industrial park from inundation.

Excuse me, sir. People did not want those kind of tears. They wanted the truth about the flood situation. But the government kept spewing untruths _ that everything was under control. Until it was too late.

To fix the damage caused by its own mismanagement, the government did some creative book-keeping to juggle its debt position in order to make way for its 3.5-trillion-baht loan scheme, without revealing any actual plans that were in the pipeline.

Talk about accountability. And transparency. And the lack thereof.

Where on earth were the activists during the flood? Is it possible, sir, that they were struggling to save their flooded homes and communities, thanks to the government's appalling flood mismanagement?

Mr Kittiratt is completely wrong if he believes environmentalists and civil society groups are his enemies. His real enemy is the truth.

Building a big dam on an active seismic fault seriously increases the risks of untold damage. That is the truth.

Other truths: Kaeng Sua Ten will not prevent flooding downstream because it is too small and too far upriver from the Yom valley. That is the FAO's assessment.

Economically, the 12,000-million-baht Kaeng Sua Ten dam is not worth building. This information comes from the Thailand Development Research Institute.

The dam will destroy the country's last golden teak forests, the local eco-system and wildlife. It will also submerge many villages and small towns, causing much local suffering. This warning comes from the Thailand Research Fund.

Since some people do not understand the intangible values of nature and culture, let's talk money.

The estimated monetary returns from Kaeng Sua Ten over the next 50 years have been calculated at around 1,800 million baht. This estimate comes from the World Bank.

The returns from preserving the forests as sources of biodiversity, food supply, carbon sinks, eco-tourism and the local way of life, however, will be nearly 6,700 million baht. This assessment comes from the Institute of Good Governance for Social Development and the Environment.

The truth is that there are other ways to mitigate flooding in the Yom valley. The villagers' proposals are in tune with those from Naresuan University _ conserve the forests, build small dykes and reservoirs along the Yom's tributaries, dredge local canals and swamps, get rid of barriers to water runoff, and readjust housing to take into account seasonal flooding.

How will the government refute all this? With untruths _ the same way it did with last year's flood?

Building the Kaeng Sua Ten dam is a mad idea. Even crazier would be to think the villagers will take it lying down, that's for sure.

[PeteC]

Story and photos old and new about how people are now coping 6 months later. Pete

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/investi ... ered-homes