Reader submission: Rainy season, a blessing or a source of misery?
Ayutthaya September 27, 2021: Heavy storm caused flooded in football field front of school building.(Athawit Ketsak / Shutterstock.com)
It's that time again, finally rainy season in a part of Thailand. Normally, mid-August to the end of October is the time when the thirsty soils of Isaan, among others, are provided with water so that anything and everything can be grown again.
We cannot control nature, think the climate problem deniers, while another group signed climate agreements recognizing the danger that the speed of climate change is going too fast and that this can lead to a lot of suffering and costs.
I myself have nothing to do with the “after me comes the flood” mentality. We live in a society, so you have to want to live together. Pushing through one's own opinion is not always the solution to solve problems, I think in the meantime about the vaccine discussion in the Netherlands.
Whichever side you choose, it still doesn't change the situation that it's rainy season and the question is always where things will get out of hand. Currently, it is roughly the area of Chayaphum, Lopburi and Ayutthaya that is 160 cm under water in some places. Residents in those areas may have survived the Covid, but now the same thing is happening again. Thousands of hands helping each other to make the best of it during a period when things are not going smoothly and again with soup kitchens. No income for weeks and perhaps no income later due to failed harvests because when can the rice be planted with so much water? The water will continue to make its way to the sea, which could cause a minor recurrence of the 2011 flood in some areas.
As the largest blog of the Low Countries concerning Thailand, I wonder why nothing has been posted about this suffering in recent days, but many pieces that go mainly to want to enter the country. It remains twofold for me that if people know that flight movements affect some areas, they still want to come to those areas as soon as everything has literally dried up in order to then benefit from other people's misery, but then maybe that is the beginning of a sunnier period for those who are lucky…..
Submitted by Johnny BG
Flooding in Thailand and especially in Ayutthaya (in the Chao Phraya basin) is an annual phenomenon. I think for 50 years. It therefore has little to do with climate change. That's why it's hardly news. Thais themselves are not surprised either.
The question that could be asked is why flooding in areas that are not used to it is no longer newsworthy. On Thai TV it is indeed a topic because it can get quite exciting in October. It's more than "they're used to it"
We only make a selection from the news, if you want to read everything you can go to the websites of Bangkok Post, The Nation, Khaosod, etc.
Those 2011 floods are the reason I became a TB reader. The floods that then also affected a large part of Bangkok were monitored daily.
I still remember when we moved to Pattaya for a month because of this. First everything to the first floor and what couldn't be moved was packed in meters of plastic… what a hassle. Fortunately, our former residence at LadPhrao 101 was spared. The water stopped a few meters from the driveway, for which we, like everyone else, had built a wall.
I even remember that there were congratulations from the embassy for the decent reporting and figures on TB.
Also reminds me that I celebrate my 10 year anniversary as a TB reader.
Humans undoubtedly influence the climate, but it is very difficult, if not impossible, to determine which human actions influence the climate where and how.
The change can mean an improvement locally, for example: a little more rain in dry areas – or a deterioration with a little more rain in areas that are too wet.
For some areas, an overhead plane could therefore be a blessing, although the air quality will of course not improve.
These floods are really bad for those affected, but the Thai government is certainly to blame for this, not that everything can always be prevented, look at the latest flooding in Limburg, but if this occurs year after year, you as a government must take the right take action.
I believe that our current king years ago, when he was still a prince, offered Thailand help in the field of water management, on the condition that the Dutch business community could also anticipate this, but that this was rejected by the Thai government.
Of course I don't know the real reason, but I can imagine that the construction of major infrastructure works with the help of, in general, China is more interesting for them for the image and for them themselves there will be a lot to do. linger.
Poor ordinary Thai.
Rob
dear JohnnyBG, as you mentioned in an earlier article: The Thai are very capable of arranging it themselves and that can go against your own logic.
Otherwise, they would have enlisted the help of international experts long ago.
Maybe they think they can solve it themselves or it has something to do with losing face.
A Dutch engineer has already left because of all kinds of political games and the unwillingness to cooperate with farangs.
Apparently the Chinese are an exception, but they also do nothing about this or are not asked.
I see here daily on TV and on social media all the misery that this entails and this year many times worse.
Many people with their meager belongings still try to place things somewhere or save what can still be saved.
Vehicles also new models where the water level is above the side windows.
Houses partially or completely destroyed.
Prayut visited in recent days and was booed by an angry crowd.
This year the weather will be a complete disaster and more rain is expected in the coming days.
It has nothing to do with engineers and the water board, the rain comes here so fast and in such a large amount that it is impossible to fight against it. Nature is stronger than man with all his technology. In the Netherlands they also think that they can all do better, but if a few showers fall with more water than usual, everything there is also under water, examples are still fresh in my memory a few months ago.
You will have your domicile there in the Isaan and Nakon Sawang.
And then the many families there where money hasn't been coming in for ages, first because of the Covid vicissitudes and now this again.
Deep misery I see that every day, not like with us where people worry if they can't go on holiday to Thailand, I call that a luxury problem, exceptions such as family visits or the like left there.
Jan Beute.