More severe disasters may loom in future

Up to a million ill-fated victims remain under threat of traumatic emotional stress, in urgent need of emergency aid and humanitarian assistance.

At least 342 flood-related deaths have been reported in Thailand, mostly from drowning, and about one-third of the countryside remains heavily submerged, cutting off roads; destroying homes, businesses, crops, livestock; endangering the vital infrastructure; and leaving entire villages isolated. The contaminated overflow has caused untold damage to treasured ruins, inundating factories built in low-lying industrial zones, negatively impacting vital tourism revenue and cutting Thai gross national product by as much as 2 per cent.

Generous cash donations and corporate bank-deposited contributions from Thais-helping-Thais have been supplemented by 40,000 military troops, provincial hospices and educational institutions serving as relocation centres, thousands of kind-hearted volunteers and neighbourhood support groups. Unified emergency response efforts have joined forces with UN bodies, the Red Cross, royal foundations and NGOs to buy and deliver flat-bottom boats, drinking water, essential foodstuff and floating latrines, but these stopgap measures still foresee glaring difficult-to-solve problems lying ahead.

Given climate change, sinking landmass, deforestation, unregulated urban sprawl and decades of short-sighted human indifference, the logical conclusion is that we cannot escape the wrath of nature avenging longstanding abusive treatment. Modern excessive lifestyles and the obsession with progress at any cost must learn to accommodate, adjust and adapt to rapidly-changing times in our ever-shrinking interconnected and mutually dependent hi-tech world. The forecast analysis raises fears that the current deluge most probably represents a prelude to even more severe unnatural catastrophes and that the worst is yet to come. 

We must face harsh truths with common-sense determination by developing workable action plans featuring a regional framework utilising state-of-the-art approaches and streamlined procedures to deal with water management and conservation. All members of our global family must join together in a willingness to resolve “have versus have not” inequities with pragmatic optimism and resilient “can do, will do” attitudes to make our endangered planet a safer and saner place to pass on to our beloved 

offspring. 

Charles Frederickson

Bangkok