Floods: Good and bad news
October 11, 2013
• The water level of the Prachin Buri River fell by 24 cm yesterday. • 62 factories across the country have ceased production. • Dyke in Kabin Buri breached; water rises to 1,3 meters.
A point-by-point overview:
- Industrial areas in the north, Ayutthaya and Pathum Thani remain at risk of flooding, but the situation in Prachin Buri will improve within a week, the Industrial Works Department (IWD) said.
- The water level of the Prachin Buri River is falling at 2 centimeters per hour.
- Industrial Park 304 is not in danger as the water drains away from the center of Prachin Buri. Another body of water from the neighboring province of Sa Kaeo is expected within two or three days, but it also poses no threat to the industrial estate, which is 20 meters above sea level and 13 meters in the lowest places. In addition, the site is protected by a flood barrier, which has been raised since the 2011 floods.
- Across the country, 62 factories have ceased production, causing damage of 83,7 million baht. They are in Ubon Ratchathani (10), Si Sa Ket (16), Nakhon Nayok (13), Prachin Buri (7), Chanthaburi (1), Chaiyaphum (5), Buri Ram (2) and Sa Kaeo (8). These are detached factories and industrial sites that are not managed by the IWD.
- Taiping Ethanol Co, an ethanol supplier to PTT and Bangchak Petroleum Plc, reports damage of 50 million baht. Before the factory closed, it produced 120.000 liters per day. Production will resume in mid-November. [Location not stated]
- The Ban Takud Oom dike in tambon Wang Tal (Kabin Buri) collapsed over a length of 40 meters yesterday. A body of water quickly poured into three villages and a town. They were already under 1 meter of water; the water is now 1,3 meters high.
- The Prachantakham hospital has temporarily closed its doors. An emergency hospital has been set up in the office of the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department.
- Seven hundred soldiers build a dike of sandbags along the river Prachin Buri. They are in a race against time. The main priority of the province is to save the commercial center of Kabin Buri district. The governor expects it to take four days to pump the area dry.
- In the city of Aranyaprathet, the water level dropped by 10 cm yesterday. Nevertheless, many areas are still under 90 to 120 cm of water and no traffic is possible.
- The Meteorological Department warns of heavy rains on Tuesday and Wednesday in the Northeast and East. Tropical storm Nari is then expected to move to the lower northeast.
- The Chao Praya River will reach a record height of 2 meters by the middle of next week. Residents in unprotected areas should keep a close eye on the weather forecast, says second city clerk Sanya Cheenimit.
(Source: Bangkok Post, October 11th 2013; information taken from 'Floods in Kabin Buri worsen as dyke folds' and '304 Park assured it will remain dry')
Photos: Kabin Buri (Prachin Buri), earlier this week.
Photo homepage: Santi Songkro at the Arun Amarin Bridge in Bangkok, Wednesday.
And after all that misery and about 40 fatalities, still no reason to finally get started on a structural basis?
I don't quite understand why people like the governor of Bangkok, for example, decide to open the floodgates further. It is high time for an integrated approach led by a “Ministry of Rijkswaterstaat” or something like that. Now things are done ad hoc (and therefore too late). And when the rainy season is over, the problem is also gone and nothing needs to be done again. Let's see again next season.....
The material damage is also enormous every year: destroyed roads, closed companies, etc., sinking train rails, etc. Instead, we are busy with a HSL construction. Which is of no use to anyone, because train tickets are (almost) as expensive as plane tickets. So a large part of Thais can't afford that, tourists don't use it (you don't see anything of the landscape) so who actually does? And besides, given the (preventive) maintenance mentality here, I wouldn't risk my life………..
@ Teun You write: 'I don't quite understand why people like the governor of Bangkok, for example, decide to open the floodgates further.' The purpose of opening or opening a weir further is to accelerate the drainage of the water.
Don't forget that freight transport by rail can also offer many advantages.
Less heavy transport on the road and much cheaper .
This can be of great benefit especially from the Isaan .
Many more people will also take the train because it is the slowest way to travel at the moment.
The HST is not for Thai people nor for companies because a freight train can do it
Not using HST? has been promoted by China but I am also aware of the people
in Laos who do NOT want HST through their country and rightly too dangerous with stray cattle and
farmers with tractors who look at nothing cross but a slow train now 15 to 80 km
per hour and then suddenly a train at 250 km?
China is now mapping out a different route no longer through Laos nor through Thailand but directly to Myanmar to the sea two advantages closer to Europe and much
cheaper ?
Dear Pim,
I can't follow your thought: freight trains on a HSL???????? Then there would be an extra reason for me not to travel with the HSL. Because the chance that HSL will run on top of a freight train is not entirely imaginary.
And from your last comment
“Many more people will also take the train because it is the slowest way to travel at the moment.”
I don't understand anything at all. Isn't an HSL meant to drive at about 200-250 km/h? Nice if you encounter a freight train at that speed.......
Ever heard of organizing .
Especially when something new is being built, rails can be laid in certain places to avoid the 2nd hand Fyra trains.
The current system is hopelessly outdated, I myself prefer to step into a kamikaze bus that derails less.
Although I do miss those nice people who board the train with their chicken under their arm.
Pim,
To organize. A crucial concept. And that is exactly what I don't have too much faith in here in Thailand. You only act when things go wrong. Words like: planning, preventive maintenance, organizing are, in my opinion, too limited in Thai life or. with the Thai authorities.
*Ad hoc action is only taken when things are flooded (sluices open a bit further, a bit of dredging, etc.)
*If a Thai Air plane slides off the runway due to insufficient maintenance, the logos are painted black…
*Only when too many trains derail around Phrae will the entire route be closed for 6 weeks to overcome years of overdue maintenance/construction of new track.
Need more arguments? I still have a few.........
Dear Teun.
Promise we won't chat!
Thai people also adapt, look how quickly they have learned to use a mobile.
Black paint on that plane would be great if the other colors weren't available.
These people learn very quickly, I happen to know that.
In a short time I taught them to eat herring, you don't want to know that.
The farang will pay him, see if you can manage that at a stall in NL.
These people are really smart.
At school I learned about those concepts such as preventive maintenance/
So how you organize maintenance is a choice.
Opening the floodgates is not a bad idea at all. At least, and that's where the question will be, as long as that lock is at the end of the flood area. Not if you allow water to enter the flood area there. So there is indeed a difference depending on the lock location.
Fortunately, the road from Kabin Buri (no. 33) to Sa Keao has been reopened for all traffic. And because we just now have a Thailand blog about sex, I mean traffic on wheels. It would also apply to the split of the 304 and the 331 at the Son Kitie factory. Source: traffic info. local police station sa kaeo. rebel
Dear rebel,
The point is not whether or not opening the floodgates is a good idea, but whether the governor is the one who must/can make such a decision. Personally, I think that he does not have the specific knowledge and skills and also acts from the Bangkok interest
@ Teun There is no doubt that for the governor of Bangkok, the interests of the city are paramount. In 2011, there were therefore numerous quarrels between Bangkok and the government about the opening and closing of weirs, which sometimes got to a head. Incidentally, Bangkok has its own department in charge of water management, which will undoubtedly have advised the governor to open the relevant weir further.
On the one hand I feel sorry for the duped people who see their entire possessions rot or float away. On the other hand it is also partly their own fault because as soon as the water has receded I immediately see the people again using sewers as a waste pit .Last week I almost had the urge to get out of the car and tap a few people on their fingers but I thought in time :::this is Thailand !!!
What was the case: nearby is a building materials company that regularly gets a load of masonry sand dumped on the sidewalk. They put this masonry sand in bags for sale. After the bags are filled, the sidewalk is cleaned with a hose so that all the sand ends up in the sewerage system. comes. The sidewalk is nice and clean, but I suspect that the sewerage is also 75% closed with sand. Yes, then you shouldn't find it surprising if the water drains badly with a heavy shower, By the way, most street gullies are also closed with plastic bags and tempex baking. But as it should be good Thai: water away forget and forgive everything and next year we will see further.
The water in Prachin buri is receding, but today I hear for the first time that the family in Prachin buri is suffering from the water.
I'm new to this forum, so I may be writing something that has already been discussed at length elsewhere. May the editors please delete this post.
King Chulalongkorn the Great (Rama V) made his first trip to Europe in 1897.
During his visit to the Netherlands, he was received by our then Queen Emma.
Incidentally, he made the trip with the Royal Yacht Chakri with the Dutch captain Kamming at the helm. The other officers were also Dutch.
One of his requests was to send a Dutch hydraulic engineer to deal with the annual flooding of Bangkok, caused by the massive water masses of the Mae Chao Prya River.
An absolute must read is the wonderful dissertation of Dr. Han ten Brummel House that he dedicated to this period: De Waterkoning (King of Waters).
Under the leadership of the young Dutch hydraulic engineer Homan van der Heide (he was 37 when he arrived in Bangkok in 1902), the canals, here called 'klongs', were dredged and locks were built along the river.
The excess water could therefore be discharged and the river was closed off from the city if the water levels were too high.
Homan van der Heide encountered a lot of opposition and in 1909, seven years after his arrival, he gave up the difficult fight against the bureaucracy and went back to Indonesia where he had previously worked.
That was in March of that year…
The funny thing is that the governor of Bangkok, Sukhumbhand Paribatra, in March 2009, exactly 100 years after Homan van der Heide said a frustrated farewell, together with our then Dutch ambassador, Tjaco van den Hout, boarded a helicopter to view the to study problem areas with regard to flooding.
The Dutch engineers who were called in during the last major floods weren't here to talk aloud, but they seem to have advised that at least part of the budget budgeted annually for this should actually be used to keep the waterways clean. 'klongs'.
In some places they were only a meter deep, which hampered the flow of large amounts of water.
However, efforts are already underway in several places to improve the situation.