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significantly in new infrastructure to
guard against floods.
Sasin suggested that roads impeding
natural waterways be raised to
facilitate water drainage.
Housing in the area must also be
redesigned with flooding in mind, either
by raising the level of living quarters
or by digging canals and
floodways to channel waterflows.
Adis said water management
needed to be examined from a national
level, rather than on a provincial
basis.
‘I oppose having each province
erect its own dykes,’ he said. ‘As one
province builds flood walls, it only
shifts the burden to other areas.’
Instead, Adis suggested that a
new ‘Ministry of Water’ be created to
oversee construction of flood management
systems.
‘Water dykes currently are under
the control of each province. Those
provinces with political weight have
greater power at the expense of others,’
he said.
Suphan Buri, for instance, the
stronghold of former prime minister
Banharn Silpa-archa, helps manage
water flow away from the Chao
Phraya River to the Tha Chin River
to the west.
Adis said the inefficient drainage
of flood water through the Tha Chin
River was clearly politically motivated,
putting greater stress on provinces
to the south and the Chao Phraya
River.
Dam mismanagement
Of course, this year’s crisis also
stemmed from mismanagement of
northern dams, which were reporting
water levels near full capacity before
seasonal rains began in July and August.
Thailand’s dams have three core
functions – to mitigate flooding, store
water for farm irrigation during
droughts, and to generate electricity.
Irrigation is the role of the Royal Irrigation
Department, while power generation
is controlled by the Electricity
Generating Authority of Thailand
(EGAT).
Smith Dharmasarojana, former
The seven industrial estates flooded in Ayutthaya and Pathum Thani, such as the
Rojana Industrial Park (seen here inundated by flood waters), are all based in low-lying
land that is a major flood basin.
director-general of the Thai Meteorological
Department and currently the
chairman of the National Disaster
Warning Council Foundation, said the
upper dams were simply mismanaged.
‘The Irrigation Department and
EGAT reserved too much water when
the rains arrived, which were prolonged
and heavy. It was simply irrational,’
he said.
‘These two agencies did not
know the right amount of water that
should be stored, how much was too
much and when they should drain the
water. Even now, with the country
inundated with flooding, water continues
to be discharged from the
Bhumibol, Sirikit and Pasak Jolasid
dams. Why?’
Smith insisted the discharges are
unnecessary, as each dam is sufficiently
overengineered against cracks
even when running a surplus.
‘The water should be allowed to
overflow from these dams naturally.
When the flood recedes, we must figure
out why the responsible state
agencies did what they did,’ he said.
Another key lesson learned has
been communications. The government’s
Flood Relief Operations Centre
(FROC) and the Bangkok Metropolitan
Administration (BMA) have
both come under fire for their inaccurate,
inconsistent and at times contradictory
messages sent out to the
public.
Smith said local governments
need to be more self-reliant on getting
key information, and should not
rely on the national government to act.
More public awareness programmes
are needed to educate residents
in flood-prone areas about how
to protect themselves and their property.
It should be incorporated into the
official teaching curriculum.
And technology and lessons from
the past need to be put to better use.
After the 1983 flood, reams of studies
were written about flood protection,
leading to the development of
numerous projects initiated by His
Majesty the King. This includes telemetry
systems to monitor water levels
and the direction and speed of
floods.
‘[The technology] represents a
massive investment that has never
been fully exploited,’ said
Thaweewong from Chulalongkorn
University.
‘Not only are we not using it,
even worse, we are now relying on
our naked eyes to determine if the
dams are going to crack. Few people
realise that Thailand has everything a
country needs to forestall floods.’ ÿu
This article was first published in the Bangkok Post
on 31 October 2011. Reprinted with permission. All
rights reserved. www.bangkokpost.com.
THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 255/256
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