Govt insurance plan alone won't fix fears

But government-sponsored insurance coverage doesn’t solve the problem at its root, and leaves vast sectors of the economy vulnerable.

The problem is that international insurers don’t believe that Thailand will effectively address the problem of flooding, which our Irrigation Department warns may happen again at the same magnitude this year.

There are solid grounds for the insurers’ fears. For example, the Office of the Auditor-General found that government agencies’ efforts to manage water in the country’s 25 river basins lacked unified direction.

The Auditor-General also found that the Bt160 billion allocated for water management of the river basins was badly handled, based on an audit of the government's water management over FY2005 to FY2009.

Establishing a government-sponsored flood insurance scheme wouldn’t even begin to tackle this credibility gap.

Also, as proposed, the insurance scheme won’t cover farmers. What this sector would need is an income guarantee plan, like that of the Democrats, which the Pheu Thai rejected in favour of rice mortgages. Of course, workers, whether in factories or farms, aren’t covered nor are residents.

PM Yingluck needs to ensure that her water management plan is credible, both in the planning and implementation stages. To get this, she should update and rigorously implement the Japan International Cooperation Agency plan done in 1999, and make sure it’s implemented by water management professionals and free of politics – totally unlike what she did with the Flood Relief Operations Centre.

Ask insurers what needs to be done so that they’ll view our efforts as being at the same risk level as, say, the Netherlands, and follow their advice. 

That way, we’ll have a plan that’s credible, we’ll all have peace of mind, and insurance premiums will be acceptable to companies.

Burin Kantabutra