Flood measures unveiled for short, long-term
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Urgent measures to be taken before next rainy season - including large water-holding areas - will cost Bt13 bn
A series of urgent measures to cope with next year’s floods will be implemented within the next five months, according to a key member of the strategic committee for water resource management.
The long-term measures will be executed in the next one to three years.
Pitipong Pungboon na Ayudhaya said the short-term measures include designation of large water-holding areas known as “monkey cheeks” in key provincial locations, as well as compensation for residents of those places.
It will cost the government an estimated Bt13 billion to implement these measures to prevent a repeat of this year’s massive flooding.
The amount includes compensation for local residents whose properties are used as water-holding areas during the rainy season, Pitipong said during Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s weekly TV programme, which was broadcast yesterday.
The longer-term measures will be implemented over the next one to three years, according to Kijja Pholphasi, a key member of the Strategic Committee for Reconstruction and Future Development (SCRF).
These measures include construction of more permanent “monkey cheeks”, floodways, watergates and dams to balance the water-resource management of the Ping, Wang, Yom and Nan rivers, which come together to form the Chao Phraya.
So far, there have been no water-resource management efforts concerning the Yom River, so the committee will have to come up with reservoir plans and related projects.
Yingluck said the government will implement both urgent and long-term measures to avoid a repeat of this year’s massive floods, or at least to minimise the damage.
The government will also try to ensure that there will be enough water during the dry season, she said.
Dr Virabongsa Ramangkura, chairman of SCRF, said he had met with representatives of foreign investors to restore confidence in Thailand following the worst floods in more than five decades.
About 1,000 factories inside seven industrial estates in Ayutthaya and Pathum Thani provinces were badly damaged due to the floods, which also indirectly affected more than 10,000 other firms.
Many of the flooded factories are owned by foreign investors, especially Japanese firms.
Virabongsa earlier visited leaders of Japanese manufacturers and other businesses in Tokyo as well as top executives of Lloyd’s and other insurance firms in London.
Major reinsurance firms have expressed concern about the flood damage in Thailand, and some have yet to decide whether to renew insurance contracts for factories in Thailand for 2012.
Both investors and insurance firms are awaiting the government’s concrete actions on water-resource management before they make decisions about next year.
According to the government’s latest estimate, the flood damage runs to the tune of more than Bt1.4 trillion with a total of 2.3 million households, or nearly 10 million people, affected.
Virabongsa said the government would set aside a total budget of Bt350 billion to implement long-term projects, with details of some these schemes to be unveiled next year.
Pitipong said Thailand faced multiple challenges in managing water resources to prevent floods and drought, including a number of engineering issues as well as an ineffective early warning system for both state agencies and the general public.
He said the urgent measures would have to be completed within five months, ahead of the start of next year’s rainy season in August.
