Drowning in excuses as the floods advance

Drowning in excuses as the floods advance

The run-off which has wreaked havoc in the lower northern region has only just reached Ayutthaya, but Bangkok is already flooded in a sea of excuses from politicians, bureaucrats and technocrats.

As people in Sukhothai's central business district scrambled at night to flee rapidly rising floodwaters that burst through the province's flood walls, people in Bangkok felt a dreadful chill.

Questions now float around Facebook pages and Twitter feeds like waterborne debris _ various takes on the same anxiety: Will Bangkok go underwater again this year?

The responses from officials have been less than reassuring so far.

Some people wonder what happened to the early warning system which the government insisted, after the devastating flooding last year, would be a crucial part of their flood prevention plan?

Many complain that the only warning the authorities have consistently issued is for those in at-risk areas to move their belongings to high ground. "We don't have any belongings to move up anymore," read several comments posted to online forums.

Since Sukhothai is located by the Yom River, it is naturally vulnerable to seasonal floods. As some residents testified, this is not the first time the town has been flooded, although the fact that the levee broke made it more hectic than when flooding occurs naturally.

What is worrying is what the authorities had to say after the flood.

Wait a minute! We are supposed to have a single-command authority to handle flooding, aren't we?

Well, do you know which agency it is?

I have seen a lot of abbreviations swimming around in flood-related news reports _ SCRWM, WFMC, DDP _ but I really can't be sure which is supposed to be the single-command centre.

I have seen Science and Technology minister Plodprasop Suraswadi exerting some authority in his capacity as head of the Water and Flood Management Commission (that is the WFMC).

I have seen Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra taking charge of some issues, such as compensation for flood damage.

Meanwhile, Bangkok Governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra and his deputy Teerachon Manomaiphibul have been prominent in their vigorous attempts to control their turf in the capital as well.

How can this be described as a single command?

It does not help either that no one has come out and informed the public clearly and coherently about what to expect as more storms head our way.

Following the flash flood in Sukhothai, Royol Chitradon, chairman of the subcommittee that monitors and analyses water management for the WFMC, said more storms are expected at the end of the week but his commission believes it will be able to handle the increased volume of water within the river's banks.

As for the run-off that broke the Sukhothai levee? Mr Royol gave a rather cryptic answer, suggesting the so-called water run-off be broken down into appropriate areas and handled accordingly.

Who should be doing that? He actually said he did not have any idea as the task involves many agencies. Curiously, he did not mention anything about a single-command agency whose role I believe it is to tackle multi-agency tasks like that.

In fact, I wonder if it's not his own agency, the WFMC, that is supposed to take on this job?

His comments became more interesting when he talked about floodways and monkey-cheek water retention areas, which the government and the WFMC have championed as the key components of their flood prevention programme.

He said more than 90,000 people are encroaching on public waterways, blocking the flow of floodwater, but removing them immediately would cause a riot.

In that case, whose job it should be to start solving this problem? Again, it is a task involving several agencies and will take a long time _ years _ to get done.

Then there is his rather frustrating comment that the best way to prevent recurring floods is to have more forest cover. And that it will take an even longer time to regrow forest areas.

I mean, we sort of know this. People in Sukhothai, or those further downstream in Ayutthaya or Bangkok also know this.

What they care about is not the need to break down the water run-off into whatever category or how many people are invading public waterways.

They only want to know that the flood authorities have done their job and put in place measures to prevent a repeat of last year's nightmare. Floodwater has not yet reached Bangkok, but many of us are already awash in excuses.


Atiya Achakulwisut is Deputy Editor, Bangkok Post.

Atiya Achakulwisut

Columnist for the Bangkok Post

Atiya Achakulwisut is a columnist for the Bangkok Post.

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