Flooding caught Sukhothai officials napping

Flooding in the area was caused by breaks, some about 13 metres wide, in the flood barriers behind the Wat Ratchatanee community.
The flood waters destroyed parts of the concrete wall and leaked under the barriers, before flowing into community areas.
Authorities have only just set up a single command centre aimed at ensuring effective management and timely response, three days after the flood occurred.
The flooding was not caused by the overflow of large amounts of water from the Yom River, as in past years.
“This was an unprecedented accident,” Science Minister Plodprasob Surassawadee, who is also chairperson of the flood management committee, told media on Tuesday at Government House and apologised to flood-hit Sukhothai residents.
He said he was unaware of the failings in the cement barriers that were built in 2001, which allowed the water to flow into the town. He said the flooding should recede in a few days.
Meanwhile, PM Yingluck Shinawatra on Tuesday instructed Natural Resources and Environment Minister Preecha Rengsomboonsuk to fly with officials to visit the flood-affected areas, covering 5 square kilometres, which have been under 1.5 metres deep flood water.
“ Local authorities have not set up any management system to handle the flood situation,” Preecha said.
“No one knows their responsibilities in dealing with the emergency. The single command centre must be set up now and working around the clock to stop flooding. If not, it will get worse,” he told local authorities at the Sukhothai provincial rural roads office.
Provincial governors nationwide already have the authority to set up a command centre to handle floods. They do not need to an order from the government or Water and Flood Management Committee.
“ We have to accept that Sukhothai local authorities had no experience in handling floods inside municipality areas,” he said.
In the past, the overflow of large amounts of water from the Yom River has flown into rural areas of Sukhothai province, not into the urban area because authorities had built a flood barrier along the river 10 kilometres long and 6 to 7 metres high.
However, water in the Yom River damaged the lower parts of the flood barriers and seeped into the community zones around 7pm on Sunday. Initially, the leakage was small but three hours later it had drastically increased to a torrent 13 metres wide, inundating residential areas.
“We did not expect that water from Yom would break the barrier and rapidly flow from the breaches into the community zones,” Sukhothai Provincial Administration Organisation chief Pannasiri Kulanartsiri, said.
In order to help the flood-affected areas in Sukhothai, Preecha said he had ordered the provincial governor and other officials to install more than 1,000 gabion baskets – heavy wire-netting containing rocks – to block water from breaking through the barriers at Wat Ratchathanee community.
He also ordered local authorities to deploy 20 pumps to drain the water back into Yom River. “We expect the floods to recede within three days,” Preecha said.
“I will not leave until the construction to block the breaches is finished,” he said.
Meanwhile, Royal Irrigation Division 4’s chief, Archit Suwanichwong, designated by Preecha to oversee this construction, said he was not sure it would be finished within a few days due to difficulties in transporting the necessary equipment.
“If they [local authorities] had known how to block this leakage earlier when the leakage was small, a large amount of water would not have flown into the community zone,” he said.
Sukhothai Governor Chakarin Plienwong said that at press time, the piling “big bags” and gabion baskets to stop flood water pouring into the municipality area had progressed by 50 per cent hence it should be completed by 3am today. Seventy pumps were also running to drain out flood water as fast as possible. He would report on the situation in detail to PM Yingluck Shinawatra during her visit today, he added.