Authorities have been busy responding to the deadly floods in the South for the past week. We know that because they have told us, from Government House on down. Yet beneath the thin veneer of spin to the media, there are important issues. They all revolve around why the government, military and disaster relief authorities all waited, again.
The floods in the region occur yearly. The damage, inconvenience and human toll are not just predictable but in large part caused by poor and careless planning, or a total lack of it.
A Bangkok columnist noted last week that while the capital is inundated every 10 or 15 years, the South is flooded every year. There is a rhythm to the annual rains, but also to the self-congratulation from authorities. This has been occurring for several decades. It is about time that political and security leaders examined the scope of the flood disasters in the South.
They should start by preparing. When the near-Biblical rains hit northeastern Malaysia's Kelantan state 10 days ago, officials immediately began to evacuate low-lying communities. Schools, mosques and sports stadiums used equipment stored on site to provide shelter, beds and food. In the nearby deep South, private merchants donated food, and allowed evacuees to sleep on the pavements in front of their shops.
But it took many days for the Thai government and military to marshal obviously needed supplies. The air force arranged a media photo-op last Sunday for a C-130 flight to the South with small flat-bottomed boats. They had been stored in Bangkok instead of in the South. At the actual flood scene, the helicopter of a private hospital was saving villagers from their homes.
But the problem of the South's killer floods is preventable, as they are largely the result of poor policy. Take the example of city planning and road building. Authorities have designed roads in the South that block water flows. The Highways Department, to pick a responsible agency as an example, has effectively provided roads that act as dams and weirs, making flooded areas and the floods worse. This shows a total lack of planning.
The problem is familiar. It applied to last week's record number of road deaths in the "seven dangerous days" and will soon apply to the deadly flooding in the South. In a nutshell, as soon as the immediate problem ends, officials, the public and, yes, the media, drop the issue. The truth we must face is that the floods in the South can be alleviated. The tragedy is that they haven't been, and likely won't be.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha consistently points to past governments as the root causes of persistent problems, from corruption to highways deaths to the current floods. He is correct, but only in part.
He now heads the government, and fixing these fatal, continual and predictable problems is in his hands and his ministers'. On behalf of all southerners, he must hold feet to the fire and commence fixing a broken system.
The Highways Department, national and regional planners, and Gen Prayut's military colleagues are among the worst planners. He is not their friend; he is their leader.
He faces a stark choice. He can work to fix the faults of former governments that failed to properly plan for floods in the South; or he can look forward to being lumped in the future with those who could have succeeded, but did not.
It is time that the government and state agencies come up with better ways of dealing with the floods in the South. People there cannot wait any longer.