Rapid Assessment for Resilient Recovery and ... - GFDRR

decision making sections of government. It should include technical expertise both from
water utility engineers and disaster risk management experts and it should seek guidance
from the approving budget section, as well as the political will to support this exercise in
an integrated manner. In the process of developing the plans, coordination is needed with
other sectors that develop resilience plans. The institutional set to be clarified comprises
the question of who is the lead agency, the establishment of a coordination committee,
which budgeting, safeguards and implementation arrangements are in place, and how and
who is going to undertake monitoring, testing and evaluation.
To increase disaster resilience, it is important to include the communities in disaster
preparedness and response actions. Communities are recognized as the first line of
defense after a disaster occurs. Raising their awareness and strengthening their capacity
to perform quality control of supply systems is the first step to reduce the impact of
disaster events.
‘Build-back-better’ (BBB) is a principle that also prevails in the planning and design of
damaged structures in the medium term. Water and wastewater utilities should start to
consider more advanced technology, improved quality, safer locations and higher flood
resilience into their planning and budgeting processes when starting to reconstruct their
assets.
Strategy for Long-term Recovery and Reconstruction
In the long term, water and sanitation policies should be in line with the government’s
Strategic National Action Plan (SNAP) on Disaster Risk Reduction 2010–2019. For the
water and sanitation sector, this translates into the following steps:
• Improving disaster resilience through Water Safety Plans. It is recommended
for provinces, local governments and individual water utilities to develop
specific Water Safety Plans (WSP) that include disaster resilience as an integral
part. These WSP would be based on the disaster resilience plans recommended
under the mid-term strategy. Disaster resilience within these WSPs can include
increasing possible sources for water supply, such as tapping new or a higher
quantity of wells or river intakes to enable utilities to manage their waters in a
more flexible, resilient way. In the case of a disaster, this can better ensure safe
drinking water provision to their customers. It might further include the upgrade
of appropriate technology for specific disaster-related circumstances, such as
separating wastewater and storm water in flood-prone areas in order to reduce
possible contamination during the flood event.
• Adjusting to future disaster risk projections. Depending on scenarios for future
disaster projections, Water Safety Plans should be adjusted to future disaster risk
projections under the existing climate change scenarios for their individual
locations. If floods like the current one are likely to return more frequently, it might
be economically reasonable to alter the systems’ design capacity to deal with
increasing volumes of water in a better way. This may include changing the
location of the facilities or increasing the overflow capacity of a canal.
98 THAI FLOOD 2011 RAPID ASSESSMENT FOR RESILIENT RECOVERY AND RECONSTRUCTION PLANNING