Holding back the waters

Three years ago, more than 100 of Ayutthaya’s Community Learning Centres (CLCs) were forced to stop or limit services after being hit by the worst flooding in modern history.

Speaking at an event marking the completion of the project that set out to restore these CLCs, Min Bista, coordinator for UNESCO Bangkok, talked not only about this success but also how the initiative has brought disaster risk reduction (DRR) to the fore.

“This is the context in which this closing ceremony occurs: an Ayutthaya where non-formal education is robust and communities have an increased level of preparedness to respond to disasters when they arise,” Bista said.

The 2011 floods took hundreds of lives and caused billions of baht in property damage, affecting more than 300 CLCs, 106 of which were in Ayutthaya province.

CLCs serve tens of thousands outside formal educational systems and form a key component of the Unesco-supported flexible learning strategies.

Unesco Bangkok joined the Office of Non-formal and Informal Education (ONIE) to support the restoration of the centres. With assistance from the government of Japan, the project helped restore buildings and provide CLCs with the equipment and learning materials they need to function.

Unesco also partnered with Thailand’s Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation to conduct DRR training in the province.

Bista noted that when disaster strikes, human culpability is too often ignored, both in terms of contributing to factors that worsen their impact, such as climate change, and in the absence of precautionary measures beforehand.

“No one disputes the intensity of the rains that fall during these periods. The level of loss, however, clearly points to humanity’s lack of preparedness,” he said. 

“This is why Unesco Bangkok has worked to strengthen the DRR knowledge and capacities of learners, teachers, education officials and community members through a province-wide capacity development programme.”

Japanese support was crucial to the project’s overall success and Japanese ambassador Shigekazu Sato spoke warmly of the bonds between the two countries.

After the Tohoku tsunami and earthquake, Thailand was behind only the US and Taiwan in terms of foreign donations. Later that year when disaster hit Thailand, the Japanese remembered that generosity.

“It was the kindness of the Thai people and the good relationship between Thailand and Japan that prompted the Japanese government to actively support the project to restore Community Learning Centres,” he said.

Despite officially coming to a close with last week’s ceremony, the project’s organisers hope that its lessons will resonate far into the future. And it was with this goal in mind that UNESCO Bangkok partnered with software developer Opendream to create the mobile gaming application, “Sai Fah: The Flood Fighter”, which provides a new challenge – and lesson – on the safest course of action before, during and after floods. 

With awareness raised in this way, the project’s most valuable legacy is that it should help to preclude the need for an initiative of this scope and duration again in Ayutthaya.

“The greatest achievement of this project is that we have empowered an entire province to reduce its vulnerability to man-made disasters,” Bista noted. 

“With the CLCs rebuilt and DRR awareness raised, local communities themselves now have the skills they need to mitigate the effects of future disaster.”