OCT 17 Thailand is drowning in what have been believed to be a misfortune floods in some-more than half a century. The north as well as a central plains have by now been submerged in water, in places as high as two metres.
The Yingluck Shinawatra supervision is attempting to protect Bangkok from a distracted floods officials have been rushing to strengthen barriers as well as widen canals. But her attempts might have come a little as well late. Bangkok's suburbs have been fast being submerged. Without an puncture plan, downtown Bangkok could experience a similar mess within days.
The deluge swept across a nation from as early as late July. But it reached a predicament turn early this month when Ayutthaya, Thailand's old collateral as well as centre of key manufacturing plants, was heavily flooded. Factories owned by foreign conglomerates such as Honda, Nikon as well as Canon were forced to halt operations.
So far, almost 300 people have reportedly been killed, as well as some-more than 10 per cent of rice farms have been damaged. The situation was so bad which a Finance Ministry cut its foresee for economic growth to 3.7 per cent from 4 per cent as well as said a mess might cause 120 billion baht (RM11.8 billion) of damage.
Despite a scale of devastation, it was only last week which Thai Prime Minister Yingluck acknowledged in a televised broadcast which this was apropos a inhabitant crisis. She set up a "war room" recently to plunge into a crisis.
Many Thais have been commencement to ask: is a predicament not so many about how to cope with this kind of healthy disaster, though some-more about a predicament of leadership?
To be fair to Yingluck, she has been seen everywhere via a country, meeting with those influenced by a floods as well as charity them simple commodities. She has worked around a clock, visiting a many remote regions to display her commitment to relieving a hardship of influenced residents.
Will this be sufficient to prove her l! eadershi p? Probably not. So far, a government's resolution to a predicament has been formed upon a one-(wo)man uncover strategy. All of Yingluck's ministers directly in assign of a mess were nowhere to be seen during a beginning. Once they were coerced to take responsibility, they came up with opposing solutions, to illustrate further confusing a victims of a floods. There has been no integrated approach or a policy during a inhabitant level.
It is true which Thailand is not alone in its failure. The approach to inundate supervision in many of Southeast Asia, according to a Middle East Development Bank, has been piecemeal as well as localised. Instead of traffic with a root causes, they combine upon building carry out structures such as inundate embankments to protect habitation as well as agricultural land.
This is exactly what Yingluck has been doing. Thailand still lacks a long-term predicament supervision plan. Many questions sojourn unanswered: As some-more rains have been expected, what would be a subsequent evacuation plan? How shortly would Thailand be out of a crisis? What have been a rehabilitation strategies once a H2O turn decreases? And what kind of compensation is a supervision peaceful to offer to those strike by a floods?
Smith Dharmasaroja, conduct of a Natural Disaster Warning Foundation, argues: "The complaint is H2O management. We kept as well many H2O in a dams early in a rainy season, as well as now during a finish of a season, they have to release a large amount of H2O during a same time, which has caused floods."
He also noted: "This situation does not outcome from a healthy disaster. Our complaint is which you do not know how to conduct water. We did not consider from a commencement of a rainy deteriorate whether there would be lots of sleet as well as how many H2O should have been held in a dams ... The Irrigation Department as well as a Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand were afraid they would run out of H2O in a dry season. They made a wrong guess! ."
< p>Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, speaking from his base in Dubai, observed: "Looking during it from a positive perspective, a current inundate predicament provides a great opportunity for a supervision to consider about an integrated H2O supervision system as well as we believe all parties would agree with it."It is no great excuse for Yingluck to explain which her supervision has only arrived in energy as well as which she has been overwhelmed by alternative "political issues". While there is no doubt she is really critical about finding a discerning resolution to a problem, a some-more important issue is, how will Thais consider her opening once a floods subside? Today
* Pavin Chachavalpongpun is a associate during Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
* This is a personal opinion of a bard or publication. The Malaysian Insider does not validate a view unless specified.
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