Rapid Assessment for Resilient Recovery and ... - GFDRR

Water and Sanitation Sector
Summary
Damage and financial losses in the water and sanitation sector in the 26 affected provinces
taken into account for this assessment amounted to an estimated THB 5.5 billion (Table
26). Due to the rather slow onset of the impacts of the floods, water supply and wastewater
utilities were able to prepare themselves for the disaster; the long time period of flooding 84 ,
however, still had a substantial impact on the sector: around THB 3.5 billion are attributed
to physical damage to water and sanitation infrastructure, mainly rural water supply systems
and urban sewage treatment facilities. Around THB 2 billion has been attributed to losses of
economic flows of the utilities, mainly due to lower revenues during the flooding as well as
higher expenditures for treatment of more polluted raw waters, cleaning of wells or replacement
mechanical and electrical systems.
Table 26: Water and sanitation
sector – Damage, losses and
needs in Thai baht, millions.
Sub-sector/
Component
Disaster Impacts
Recovery, Reconstruction
and Needs
Damage Losses Total ~6 mths 6-24 mths
Water Supply
Sanitation
TOTAL
Urban
Rural
Urban
70.3
1,783.2
1,643.6
3,497.0
1,875.0
107.1
1.4
1,983.5
1,945.3
1,890.3
1,645.0
5,480.5
1,245.3
107.1
1,645.0
2,997.3
735.2
1,783.2
117.0
2,635.3
Note: Sanitation in rural areas is almost exclusively provided through septic tanks, which are calculated under the
housing section
Recommendations for the sector include a focus on short-term recovery and reconstruction
of the service providers through repair of damage as well as short-term solutions to increase
disaster resilience against future floods. This may include building flood protection for the
facilities or storing equipment and chemicals on higher ground.
In the medium term, it is recommended for utilities and local governments to develop local
disaster-resilience plans through revising all components of their system and discussing how
to improve resilience with the resources available. This may include exchanging vertical
turbine pumps with submersible pumps, elevating the base of the pumps to higher ground,
and moving generators to higher ground or platforms.
In the long term, the sector’s resilience should be improved by developing sector-specific
Water Safety Plans and aligning these with the Strategic National Action Plan (SNAP) on
Disaster Risk Reduction. Utilities should include disaster resilience into their business plans
and adjust their systems to future risk projections. Increased monitoring and maintenance
should be undertaken for high-risk areas and system components.
84 In several affected provinces, floods have not yet receded and areas will most likely remain flooded for a few more weeks.
THAI FLOOD 2011 RAPID ASSESSMENT FOR RESILIENT RECOVERY AND RECONSTRUCTION PLANNING
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