3 replies to this topic

[Hedda]

After reading for the past week about the severe flooding in many parts of Thailand, I got to wondering why nothing seems to get done about preventing these floods in the first place, rather than cleaning up after them. I know that much has been done in creating dams, but why does normal rainfall always seem to cause such abnormal misery anyway ?

I recall reading several years ago that the Thai government had budgeted a huge amount of money in the city of Ayutthaya to prevent flooding of the many historic sites there.

Yet, I read with disbelief in the Bangkok Post today that flood waters have now destroyed 26 temples and historic sites in Ayutthaya, threatening many more on the UNESCO list of world heritage sites.

Some of those destoyed or threatened sites, such as the Pom Phet fort and Wat Maheyong, are over 700 years old. I wondered why this year's rains, which are normal by statistical standards, have resulted in such wide destruction of sites that have survived for 700 years of rains.

The answer may lie in these few sentences: " Anek Sihamat, director of the Fine Arts department...which oversees World Heritage sites in Ayutthaya, urged the provincial office to review the Ayutthaya town planning, saying several buildings have blocked the water flow, leading to severe inundation at the historical sites."

Sometimes people, not mother nature, can be the cause of this country's biggest water problems.

http://www.bangkokpost.net/News/14Oct2006_news04.php



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[Gaybutton]

I got to wondering why nothing seems to get done about preventing these floods in the first place, rather than cleaning up after them.

A close friend of mine answers that. He always says, "The problem in Thailand is there is never anything proactive. It's always reactive."

I think he's right.

[DollyLamma]

The Thais are still stuck on development at any price, which means the environment gets the short end.

They built the new airport on massive wetlands that have been one of the main draining areas for excess rain runoff from Bangkok. Its effects remain unclear.

A lot of the annual flooding in Chiang Mai, where I had a downtown business for almost 2 year, is caused by uncontrolled building in the normal flood plain of the Ping River.

Uncontrolled development in normal flood plain areas is to blame in my opinion for many cases of "flood damage." Thaty includes the folks in Ayutthaya who should realize that their antiquities, not tourist hotels built too close to the sites, are their most valuable possessions.

[UncleSam]

when you use a language that has no future tense, it's hard to plan for contingencies.

Hehehe.....