In a word: Mismanagement
Mismanagement: that, in a word, is Srisuwan Janya's assessment of the government's water management and relief operations.
When the water recedes in early December, he will file a complaint against 33 government departments, including the Royal Irrigation Department, Bangkok City Council and the Flood Relief Operations Command.
Srisuwan is president of the Stop Global Warming Association Thailand. The association previously achieved success by having the controversial construction of 76 factories on the Map Tha Put industrial estate halted by the court. The Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Act of 2007, which Prime Minister Yingluck recently put into effect, offers the possibility to sue the government and demand more compensation than the set 5.000 baht per affected household.
What are the complaints? Pointwise:
- The government's policy of storing too much water in the reservoirs. As a result, they reached a critical level. The decision to discharge water came too late, causing 15 billion cubic meters of water from three dams in the North alone to cause major flooding.
- Bickering of political parties, government and Bangkok municipality.
- Members of Parliament of Pheu Thai inciting villagers to destroy dikes. The government did nothing.
- Froc evacuation warnings that caused panic but turned out to be false.
- The inability of all services to make use of available information. For example, scientists had already warned about La Nina, which is always accompanied by heavy rains and floods.
Furthermore, Sriruwan accuses policymakers now and in the past of not caring at all about the geography of the flooded areas: Bangkok and Ayutthaya and the surrounding area. 'The ancient heritage sites of Ayutthaya survived simply because our ancestors knew this area would be inundated and set aside enough low-lying land for drainage and to absorb floodwater. But the governments of previous promoted industrial development and allowed factories to be built in areas otherwise meant to soak up floodwater.'
how despondent you must become as a tourist when you see so much misery. You don't go on holiday for that. No, then a little later this year or avoid.
Members of Parliament of Pheu Thai inciting villagers to destroy dikes. The government did nothing.
Was this in the past or has this just happened; and especially why?
I wonder if anyone knows the background to this.
@ Frank Whether it happened in the past I don't know.
The dikes are destroyed to keep their own territory dry (or to allow it to drain faster) and to make others bleed. Disaster not only brings out the best but also the worst in people.
There have also been several skirmishes between residents of different (adjacent) areas.
The Royal Irrigation Department also reports that it is sometimes opposed by residents.
Thank you Dick.
It is actually unbelievable that a political party would encourage such a thing .