The Floods of 2011

[margaretcarnes]

I'd agree with this one: build tunnels or more khlongs to help the water flow to the sea, to the sea.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/2 ... ood-tunnel

The sad thing is that, as per a report in todays BP - the Kings advice on Bangkok flood management 16 years ago appears to have been ignored. They shouldn't NEED new klongs etc if they hadn't filled so many in - and hadn't built on land which carried runoff before (eg Swampy.)

I came down to HH on the train yesterday - huge areas between BangSue and Nakhon Ratchasima are still badly flooded in parts. Very sad to see all the little tents and temporary accomodation - piles of furniture etc being cleared by earth moving equipment. People still wading chest high in some parts. So if this is - as they say - clearing now wtf was it like at it's peak?

Oh well we take comfort that Yinglucks bowel movements are back to normal, but maybe thats a whole new topic

[PeteC]

The below photo about says it all as to the state of things this week. Water still draining, garbage still piling up for collection. Pete

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/nationa ... 71212.html

[PeteC]

Here's an example of no work permit, or proper permit, being ignored by the authorities. I'm sure its the same with many types of volunteer work as discussed on our other thread.

"Central Pattana has joined hands with Wipe The Tide, a grouping of foreign Facebook users in Thailand, to raise funds for flood victims.

To raise funds, the foreigners are wiping cars at Bangkok intersections.

The project was kicked off on November 13 at the Ratchaprasong intersection - in front of CentralWorld. As of November 20, donations reached Bt1.45 million. All the proceeds will be presented to organisations which are launching projects to directly aid flood victims. Follow their activities at www.bangkokvanguards.com.

That snippet is included in the below article which lists many of the aid programs that are in progress for flood victims. Pete

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/busines ... 71195.html

[PeteC]

As a side note, to my knowledge VincentD is the only member on here who has been flooded out of his residence. Vincent, I hope things are improving for you and your family and you'll keep us all up to date on how you're recovering. Pete

[Nereus]

I came down to HH on the train yesterday - huge areas between BangSue and Nakhon Ratchasima are still badly flooded in parts. Very sad to see all the little tents and temporary accomodation - piles of furniture etc being cleared by earth moving equipment. People still wading chest high in some parts. So if this is - as they say - clearing now wtf was it like at it's peak?

Oh well we take comfort that Yinglucks bowel movements are back to normal, but maybe thats a whole new topic

Not sure just why you would travel to Hua Hin via Nakhon Ratchasima, but I guess each to his own to have a look around.

I had to make a quick trip to the North (Phrae) last week, so here are some observations:

I drove via the Eastern outer Ring Road (hwy 9) from Phrakhanong in Bangkok via the Expressways. Still a lot of cars parked along the shoulders in both directions, and for some strange reason a lot of taxis. The Expressway joins the ring road just South of Lam Luk Ka. A big mess at the Northern toll gate and a couple of places where the dividing concrete barrier has been opened up to allow U turns. After all, the Thais need to have a U turn now and again or they lose interest.

(I must add that there was no toll, but on my return on 1st December the tolls were in place, and they had road-making gear there repairing the broken road surface)

Still a lot of poor buggers camped in makeshift humpies along the Ring Road and further North. From Bang Pa In Interchange I used Hwy 32 North towards Nakhon Sawan. From between 100 to 120 Kms along this highway there are huge areas still completely under water, just looks like a big lake on both sides of the road. The big temple that can be seen from the road near the intersection is still surrounded by water.

At the big bridge over the river at Nakhon Sawan there is vegetation from the floods hanging down from the telephone lines, which must be 20 feet in the air. Just to the North of the city the road is badly broken up on the southbound side of the divided carriageway for a distance of about 10 kms. A lot of this city is low ground near the river, so I believe it must have been severe in some areas.

Further north there is no indication that there were ever any floods, and in all the rivers that the road crosses the water level is well down. The rice harvest is in full swing further north.

[Nereus]

Is this just the first casualty?

Sanyo Semiconductor closes factory

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews ... es-factory

Sanyo Semiconductor (Thailand) Co. Ltd. will close down its factory at Rojana Industrial Park in Ayutthaya after flooding caused extensive damage to its operations.

Yamakawa Tetsuzo, president of the company, announced the close-down on Friday.

Mr Tetsuzo explained that prolonged flooding at Rojana Industrial Park caused so much damage to the company's machinery and buildings that the cost of renovations would be too high to bear.

Flooding in Thailand, where some of the world's major producers of computer parts are situated, has also had an impact on the global supply chain and caused a slow-down in the semiconductor business.

The company thus decided to stop its operation in Thailand. All employees will be laid off and properly compensated, Mr Tetsuzo added.

Sanyo Semiconductor was established in 1990. It employed more than 2,000 people, most of them daily wage earners and sub-contractors.

[Nereus]

And then we have this?

Kittiratt: Big foreign firms won’t move out

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews ... t-move-out

Large foreign companies still have confidence in Thailand and they will not move their production bases to other countries, Commerce Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong said on Friday.

In his speech “Sufficiency economy in the midst of fragile global economy and the government’s policies”, Mr Kittiratt said the announcement by Sanyo Semiconductor (Thailand) Co. Ltd. That it will close down its factory at Rojana Industrial Park in Ayutthaya, after flooding caused extensive damage to its operations, was just a decision by only the company.

The minister expressed his confidence that big foreign firms would not leave the country as they preferred Thailand to be their productions bases.

Many new foreign industries are looking to set up production bases in Thailand and this was clearly seen by the substantial increase in number of investment applications applying for investment privileges from the Board of Investment, he added.

The minister said the government was now drawing up plans to prevent recurrence of floods, particularly the plan to seek loans for building floodwalls in various industrial estates. The constructions of such flood prevention walls are expected to be completed by mid-2012.

In addition, the government also has plans to oversee outside industrial estates manufacturers. The government will hold talks with farmers asking for using their farmlands as water retention areas. Reasonable compensation will be offered for owners of the lands in exchange for their cooperation, he added.

The flood prevention plan will be finalized next year and this could restore confidence of foreign investors, said Mr Kittiratt, who is also serving as deputy prime minister for economic matters.

[Nereus]

This will fix it! Just imagine how many new Mercedes Benz this will provide.

No magic in mega

http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opin ... agic-pills

Published: 9/12/2011 at 12:00 AM Newspaper section: News
The flood was scary. But what is scarier than the flood disaster is the government and technocrats' obsession with mega projects on flood prevention.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra told the Asean Summit in Bali, Indonesia, last month that her government was considering setting up a network of weirs and dykes that can provide water during droughts and produce electricity. The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry is proposing a multi-billion-baht project to create a 300-kilometre "flood route", which is lined by concrete walls of about 1-2 metres high. The Engineering Institute of Thailand is floating an idea of building a 200-billion-baht 100-km tunnel linking Ayutthaya and Samut Prakan as the latest solution to future flood in Bangkok.

Many government agencies and private firms definitely have a long list of mega projects in their pockets, waiting for the right time to unveil them to the public.

There is still an ongoing debate on what caused the 2011 major deluge that killed nearly 700 people and affected almost 5 million people in dozens of provinces, including Bangkok.

No matter if the disaster was caused by extreme weather events or flaws in flood management or both, there is no guarantee that mega projects on flood control would be able to prevent the repeat of such catastrophe.

What is certain about these construction projects is that they cost a lot of money and will cause immense impact on the environment and the people.

How many natural waterways will be dammed and how many communities will be affected by Ms Yingluck's plan to build a nationwide network of weirs and dykes? How many families will be relocated to pave way for the 100km giant tunnel? How many rai of farmland will be sacrificed for the creation of a 300km flood route?

It is very likely that the devastating impact of these giant schemes will be far greater than flood disaster itself. Vast amounts of taxpayers' money will be spent on these projects while huge loans will be borrowed to fund the ambitious schemes, which are always plagued with corruption.

This does not mean the government should not do anything to prevent the repeat of this year's flood disaster.

A long-term and sustainable flood prevention plan is needed, but it should focus on small-scale, economically viable projects with minor adverse impact on the environment and society.

Long-term flood prevention measures do not always mean construction of mega projects. It could be a regular cleanup of rivers and klongs, strict law enforcement against waterway encroachers, upgrading pumping stations, adjusting sluice gate operations, or overhauling water storage management in the major dams.

It is understandable that flood-devastated business operators and residents who've suffered huge losses and endured various hardships, will want to see concrete measures to safeguard them from future floods.

However, we must not let the flood scare push us into implementing the wrong solutions. And we must not let politicians use the flood crisis to push for multi-billion-baht projects so that they can take under-the-table money from contractors and consultant firms.

The country should take the time to research the true cause of this year's flooding before jumping to the conclusion that Thailand needs more dams, more underground tunnels, a large-scale flood route, or permanent flood barriers.

If the we implement the mega projects without carefully weighing the pros and cons, we could end up like Mr Bean of the British comedy series, whose attempts to solve one problem always lead to bigger problems and troubles. Only this would be no laughing matter.

The series of multi-billion-baht projects proposed in the aftermath of the major inundation shows that Thai politicians and technocrats in the ministries are still very much obsessed with mega projects.

Whether this mega mania comes from their belief that giant projects are a panacea to our country's ills, or because the schemes give them the opportunity for corruption and kickbacks, this obsession with mega projects is dangerous. So every proposed scheme must be scrutinised by the public.

Kultida Samabuddhi is Deputy News Editor, Bangkok Post.

[STEVE G]

Large foreign companies still have confidence in Thailand and they will not move their production bases to other countries, Commerce Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong said on Friday.

I can imagine that many companies might consider moving within Thailand if the cost of restarting their production in flooded areas is very high. Since those industrial estates were built in the eighties and nineties the transport links to other parts of Thailand have improved greatly and it might make more sense to move to areas that are less flood prone, particularly as this isn't a problem that is going to go away.
Even much of the manpower for these factories come from the NE, so a move in that direction is going to be beneficial to much of the workforce.
It could be benificial in that it might help redistribute wealth around the country as well as alleviating flood problems.

[Nereus]

If this is true it is unbelievable, even for Thailand.
I hope that the section about the museum is not correct, as they had some unique aircraft in there.

............................................................................................

Think the unthinkable

http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opin ... nthinkable

The chief of the Royal Thai Air Force has sent a bill to the government for 10,563 million baht for the damage caused by the floods at the military side of Don Mueang airport. Oh, and it will take a year, perhaps 18 months to get the Air Force up and running again at Don Mueang. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is not the only person taken aback by this.

She has asked Air Chief Marshall Itthaporn Subhawong for a more detailed accounting of this bill. But the prime minister should be demanding that the air force consider completely alternative plans.

First, the RTAF has to show more accountability to superiors and to the public.

There has been no decent explanation of why so much air force equipment was left at Don Mueang to face the oncoming floods.

Companies and individuals were able to relocate many aircraft and vehicles out of Don Mueang. There seemed to be no such effort by the air force to move equipment to other airports or to higher ground.

This has created an enormous loss of confidence by the public in its air force.

As this newspaper reported last week, there is muted criticism of ACM Itthaporn behind the scenes in both military and government circles. But in the public domain, the air force chief has been criticised for poor planning and lack of action as the floods descended from the north.

His statement of defence has already been derided: ''We had a well-prepared plan but we did not expect the water to come in from Don Mueang airport.''

How could a plan to defend Don Mueang from floods ignore the possibility that the airport would be flooded?

So there are two issues that must be settled before serious reconstruction can begin at Don Mueang.

The first is to find out what happened, and specifically why there was not more effort to save moveable equipment _ airplanes, vehicles, communications and other high-tech machinery _ and particularly the RTAF Museum and its essentially priceless displays.

The word from the site of that marvelous collection of Thai and international displays is that much, maybe most of the museum and its exhibits are so badly flood-damaged that they cannot be salvaged.

ACM Itthaporn has said communications and navigation gear is so far gone that US experts will have to come to assess the damage and see if repairs are even possible.

Second is the truly hard and ultimately contentious issue of whether it is time to stop talking about moving the RTAF headquarters to Nakhon Ratchasima _ and do it. Of course the air force command will resist.

But there is no tactical or strategic reason to rebuild a complete headquarters and air-transport fleet based in the capital city.

With all the actual air defences stationed outside Bangkok, it can be argued that senior officers should be closer to those units.

ACM Itthaporn has pointed out that the nation is safer because of a strong air force. No one can argue that - although Thailand has not been attacked from the air for many decades. The question is not what the nation can do for the air force, but what the air force must do for the nation.

The government must ask the question of whether the fantastic amount of money necessary to grant the air force's wish for a totally renovated Don Mueang air base, including new aircraft, is worthwhile.

[STEVE G]

Second is the truly hard and ultimately contentious issue of whether it is time to stop talking about moving the RTAF headquarters to Nakhon Ratchasima - and do it.

Yes, that makes sense; what is the point in rebuilding facilities in an increasingly flood prone area?

[charlesh]

Yeap - strange how the civilian planes were successfully jacked up and yet the RTAF with it's captive manpower were unable to do at least something similar to protect the assets! Image what would happen if they were indeed attacked from above or from any direction .

[Nereus]

If the report is true, then the idiot in charge should face a court-martial for dereliction of duty.
It just goes to prove how elite the Military consider themselves.

[STEVE G]

They were probably too busy trying to save the golf course.

[PeteC]

During and after.......Pete

http://www.bangkokpost.com/multimedia/p ... ok-flood-1