News from Thailand – September 14, 2012

Five provinces along the Chao Praya are at high risk of flooding as a surge of water from the North is approaching. The Royal Irrigation Department expects the water level in the river to rise by 25 to 50 cm in the coming days.

The water comes from the Chao Praya reservoir in Chai Nat province. Extra water will be discharged from it to drain Nakhon Sawan province and to prepare for heavy rain showers that will continue until Monday.

On Thursday, the river already overflowed in the provinces of Ang Thong and Pathum Thani and Bang Ban in the province of Ayutthaya has been under water for a week.

Surajit Khunthanakulwong, head of Water Resources Engineering at Chulalongkorn University, expects the water to reach Bangkok in 7-10 days. If it continues to rain from today until Monday, problems may arise.

But according to Seree Supratid, lecturer at Rangsit University, the flooding will not be too bad because good precautions have been taken. Heavy rain showers determine whether parts of the city will be flooded, because the sewage system has a limited capacity. In some neighborhoods it can take 6 to 10 hours to drain the water.

The Bangkok municipality has instructed all districts to install water pumps in areas prone to flooding. The 1200 residents of 27 neighborhoods outside the flood walls of the Chao Praya have been advised to be ready to take their belongings to a safe place.

Other flood news

• The water outflow from the Bhumibol reservoir in Tak province has been reduced. The reservoir is now 54 percent full.
• The outflow from the Sirikit reservoir has been stopped so that water from the Yom River can drain to the Nan. The reservoir is 62 percent full. The Yom River flows into the Chao Praya; the water flow in the Yom cannot be controlled because there are no dams in the river. There are two dams in the Nan: the Sirikit dam and the Naresuan dam.
• One district along the Yom River was flooded Thursday. Three other districts may follow.
• In Phitsanulok province, six districts were flooded from the Yom River. The persistent stir took it up a notch.
• Sukothai is still under water. A river dike broke on Monday. Prime Minister Yingluck took a look on Thursday. She said the water can be pumped from downtown in two days.
• The residents living along the Chao Praya in Nonthaburi and Pathum Thani provinces are taking matters into their own hands. The government's assurance that there will be no repeat of last year's floods this year is taken with a grain of salt. Now that Sukothai has been flooded at the first heavy rain because a river dike collapsed, they build walls around their houses and bring their belongings to safety.

– No, it was not a lie, Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong (Finance) claimed with dry eyes in parliament yesterday. "I didn't lie and I didn't mean to lie." Kittiratt was responding to a question from an opposition member about his admission of telling a white lie at the beginning of the year. He then predicted that Thailand's exports would rise by 15 percent. A prediction he later reduced to 9 percent.

According to the minister's miraculous reasoning, he had merely encouraged government departments to work harder so that the 15 percent could be scored. Moreover, the officials responsible for export forecasts had whispered the percentage to him.

In his reply, Kittiratt delivered another sneer at the previous government that had changed the phrase 'rally crackdown' to 'reclaim the public space'. [This refers to the ending of the red shirt protest in 2010 by the military.]

– Security at the US embassy and ambassador's residence in Bangkok has been stepped up following the assassination of the US ambassador in Benghazi in Libya. Foot and vehicle patrols are being stepped up. The municipal police station, together with Special Branch, is trying to gather intelligence about possible acts of terrorism in the country.

– The legal battle over the transfer of Chatree Thatti, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Defense, to an inactive post at the ministry is far from over. The Administrative Court canceled the transfer at Chatree's request, but the judge advocate general is appealing. Chatree was transferred by the Secretary of Defense for daring to publicly criticize the Secretary of State's preferred candidate for succession. Chatree had also enlisted the help of, among others, Prem Tinsulanonda, president of the Privy Council.

– The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should not have returned Thaksin's passport, says the National Ombudsman. The ministry has violated its own rules with this. The previous government revoked Thaksin's passport, but the current foreign minister issued a new passport to the fugitive prime minister in October.

– On Tuesday, 93 members of a southern militia surrendered and that good example is likely to be followed by more insurgents, Dithaporn Sasasamit, spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command, expects. The 93 men have asked for their arrest warrants to be revoked and legal proceedings to be stopped. But this is considered on a case-by-case basis, says Ditaphorn.

– A rubber warehouse of Mit Thai Nakhon Limited Partnership in Nakhon Si Thammarat has gone up in flames. The fire did not go unnoticed, because large gray-black clouds rose from the building. The damage amounts to 200 million baht.

– 65 children have been abducted in the past nine years, mostly 4-year-olds, says the Mirror Foundation. In total, the foundation has received 2004 reports of missing young people since 2.543: 840 boys and 1.703 girls. It mainly concerns children between 11 and 15 years. In case of missing people, the police only take action 24 hours after the report is made. The foundation believes that there is an urgent need for a law that relates to missing persons.

– Tattoos, paraffin injected into the penis and genital beads: all these were encountered by doctors who examined the graduates of the entrance exam for the police. And with that, the career they wanted came to an end. Some also turned out to have an STD. They don't want them with the police either.

– Visitors to the parliament building have complained that it smells of cigarette smoke. It stinks, especially on the first and second floors, which are accessible to the public.

– Two teenagers have been sentenced by the Central Juvenile and Family Court to a three-month suspended prison sentence with one year's probation. They violated the emergency ordinance in 2010 during the arson attack on May 19 in the CentralWorld shopping complex. The court found no evidence for armed robbery and obstruction, so they were acquitted of those charges.

Economic news

– Attention lovers of Thai cuisine. Visit a Thai restaurant abroad and see the sign Thai Select, then you are dealing with a kitchen in which high quality ingredients are used. So far, 1.200 Thai restaurants abroad have been certified and another 800 will follow this year, Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom (Trade) expects.

Thai Select is part of the Thai Kitchen World Cuisine program that was launched in 2006 with the aim of capitalizing on the worldwide popularity of Thai cuisine. The growing number of certified companies with the logo is also beneficial for the export of food products. Boonsong expects exports to rise by 5 to 10 percent this year to 17,9 billion baht. In the first seven months of this year, 10,58 billion baht was exported.

Nuntawan Sakuntanaga, director general of the International Trade Promotion Department, says that while the euro crisis is having a negative impact on restaurant visits, it also creates opportunities for Thai spices and sauces as people cook more at home.

An increasing number of restaurateurs want to open a business in other Asean countries, especially Myanmar, where the rules are unclear and the rents are not high.

[The article does not mention how the certification takes place.]

– The business community reiterates its call for government incentives to promote solar energy in homes, factories and public buildings.

"To encourage individual property owners to develop roof-top solar cells will be the right way to promote renewable energy in the future, as other renewable resources are becoming mature," said Anat Prapasawad, vice-chairman of the Federation's renewable energy section. of Thai Industries, Wednesday at Clean Energy Expo Asia 2012 in Bangkok.

He thinks the government should encourage households to install solar panels, possibly by granting them a bonus of 10 to 13 baht per kWh on top of the normal rate of 3,7 baht per kWh. The use of in Thailand made solar panels should be mandatory, because domestic producers cannot compete with Chinese panels. If the government does nothing about this, bankruptcies are to be expected, Anat predicted.

Minister Arak Chonlatanon (Energy) recently announced that the government intends to withdraw permits for solar farms that are not being used, in order to open the door to new investors.

In 2008, the government said it had plans for 500 megawatts and a bonus rate of 8,5 baht per kWh. A year later, the Ministry of Energy received license applications for solar farms with a total capacity of 3.000 MW. But so far only 159 MW has been produced. No new licenses have been granted since 2009 and the bonus system has been replaced by a 'feed-in' rate. [What that is, the article does not mention. I've read it before, but didn't get it.]

www.dickvanderlugt – Source: Bangkok Post