Phuket prevents landslides

PHUKET, Oct 27 (TNA) – Authorities in Thailand's southern resort province of Phuket plan to reinforce the sides of the province’s mountains with concrete and steel, following recent landslides, a senior local official told TNA.

More than ten mountain slopes, which are believed to be prone to landslides, including the one near the Kalim-Kamala Beach, will be reinforced, Metha Mekharat, head of Phuket’s Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Office, said.

Some of the mountain slopes, through which the roads have been cut, are as steep as 90 degrees.

The reinforcements are planned as a long-term solution to the regular landslides in these areas, according to Mr. Metha.

The local authorities also plan to monitor more than twenty areas in Phuket where the loose soil structure makes them prone to landslides, said Mr. Metha.

There were landslides in these areas last year.

--TNA 2004-10-27

Plans to solve landslide and flood problems

PHUKET: -- The Chief of the Phuket Office of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (ODPM), Metha Mekarat, has outlined both short- and long-term plans that he hopes will reduce instances of flooding and landslides in Phuket.

K. Metha told the Gazette that the recent flooding and landslides were caused both by nature and by human interference.

“Some housing projects have caused watercourses to become blocked and hillsides to be stripped of vegetation, the roots of which would otherwise hold surface soil in place,” said K. Metha.

Describing these problems as “not major”, he said that the ODPM had used data from the Department of Mineral Resources, which carried out surveys over the past 12 months to identify risk areas.

The surveys found six locations along the road between Kalim and Patong that are particularly at risk of both flooding and landslides.

A further eight areas along Phra Barami Rd and Ao Por Lungka Daeng Rd in Patong are also at risk from landslides “before too long,” K. Metha said.

Strategies to minimize the effect of deforestation will include covering high-risk hillsides with protective mesh to hold the soil in place, with a wall at the base of the hill as a last-ditch defense in case the mesh should fail.

Long-term plans include reducing the incline of entire hillsides – both those with roads and as-yet undeveloped ones – in the risk areas.

K. Metha said that the Phuket Provincial Highways Office and the Phuket Provincial Rural Roads Office must first survey the areas in question before submitting a budget request for Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura to forward to the central government.

K. Metha said that Gov Udomsak has already taken the initiative by setting up a committee to identify and inspect all of the building developments that may have caused deforestation or blockages to watercourses.

The committee will, according to K. Metha, make “recommendations” to project developers that they solve the problems they have caused. It will, however, have no power to enforce its recommendations.

--Phuket Gazette 2004-10-27

Won't Phuket look pretty ?

Just back from a month in Patong, staying at the Phuket Palace Resort right next to the Simon Cabaret, we had some days with heavy rain, it was quite clear what happens when you cut down the rainforrest, make roads and stupid buildings on the mouintain side, they will ruin this beautiful island.

We had so heavy mudslides from the building area that they needed heavy equipment to clear the road between Patong and Karon.

Maybe a good idea would be to stop people digging the dirt away from the bottom of the hills, that they then sell to other people who are building new houses. These other people raise the surface level of their land so that it is their neighbours who get flooded when it rains, and not them.

Another Solomon solution from the geniuses in the Phuket’s Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Office. During the last two heavy rainfalls around Patong reported somewhere else in the forum, it took around two hours before the water started to rise in the streets. With the help of the people from the PDPMO it will now take less than an hour. But of course they have to protect the investments they are involved in, spending the taxpayers money.

Cheers......kandt

Would a dose of Viagra have the same effect on the mountains?

Won't Phuket look pretty ?

Of course it will.

They're going to blow up some mountains to make concrete so they can reinforce ..... other mountains, and so on ad infinitum no doubt.