Safety lessons during flood

A SCHOOL initiative in Phitsanulok’s Bang Rakham district to introduce flood education, including boat-rowing and swimming lessons, to ensure students’ safety has been picked to serve as a model for public schools nationwide.

During an inspection trip to flood-hit schools in Phitsanulok and Sukhothai yesterday, Kamol Rodkhlai, secretary-general of the Basic Education Commission, visited Wat Phrom Kesorn School in Bang Rakham’s Tambon Chumsaeng Songkhram, which suffers flooding every year.
Kamol learned about the school’s project to teach students how to swim, a course that is taught at better-equipped Wat Ban Dong School, and how to row a boat.
The project, aimed at boosting students’ safety by adapting to frequent flooding and enabling them to assist others, also encouraged parents to let their children practice boat-rowing at home under their guidance.
This flood education activity will be included in the curriculum for schools in flood-prone areas around the country to teach their students these skills.
Principal Uthai Khom-avudh said his school, located in the Yom River basin, was subject to repeated flooding, especially from August-October, so he came up with the project, while the school also has an early school-term schedule to cope with time lost if floods force the school to close.
The current flood threatens to swamp this model school, and has already caused several schools in Sukhothai’s Sri Samrong district and Phitsanulok’s Phrom Piram district to close.
Obec chief Kamol said schools at risk would be urged to prepare for floods in a step-by-step manner, such as monitoring weather news, moving belongings to higher ground, reporting the flood situation to the educational service area office, temporarily suspending classes for student safety and reporting flood damage to the office for repairs and other assistance.
Meanwhile, Health Department chief Dr Pornthep Siriwanarangsan reported last week that the number of children who died by drowning over the past decade was about 12,980 per year – twice the number killed by illness or accidents.
Out of 13 million children aged under 15, only two million or 16 per cent were able to swim, while the remaining 11 million couldn’t. The Northeast saw the most cases of kids drowning, followed by the central, southern and northern regions.
A total of 38,000 rai of farmland, which functioned as a natural flood retention zone in Phitsanulok’s Bang Rakham, Phrom Piram and Muang districts, has been inundated by 60.8 million cubic metres of floodwater, while run-off from Sukhothai continues to pour in, a source said. Many villagers have hurriedly caught fish and made fermented fish.
Bundit Intha, chief of the provincial irrigation office, said the province’s flood retention capacity was 750 million cubic metres, so the situation was under control, as most farmers harvested their crops while the Yom River was at 6.8m, short of the riverbank’s seven-metre level.
PM’s Office Minister ML Panadda Diskul said the issue of flooding and relief efforts would be tabled at the Cabinet meeting today.
Wibul Sanguanpong, permanent secretary of the Interior Ministry, warned provinces not yet hit by floods to monitor rainfall and upstream water flow. The ministry expects flooding will strike low-lying areas that get inundated every year like Ang Thong’s Pa Mok district and Ayutthaya’s Bang Ban district.