Transportation Paralysed By Floods In Northeast

[dumball]

Encourged to see the ag minister has the livestock count down to 2.7 million. wonder how many voters and family are affected by all of this? OK maybe I am being too cynical.

Not at all sir , the populace is readily replaceable by the prolific Farang who are inundating our honorable country with their filthy money and Western attitudes , well , the animals are another problem , they are similar to the Thai male , slow producers of most things essential , SSSSSSSHHHHHHHH , please do not tell any one i said that , hate to be rerprimanded by the intelligentisimo on the forum , you know , those with the better than thou attitude , hurump .

You just escape with Jack (Nicholson "one flew over the cuckoo's nest") ??? People are dying and you post such absolute drivel. It's no wonder that Thai's have such a dislike for people of your ilk.

You actualy believe in the confines of your tiny mind that to make a suggestion of a way to actualy help people instead of denigrating them is a load of drivel ? I was loved and appreciated by Thais in a northern village where i achieved on a smaller scale what i consider to be a worthwhile project , at the cost of my personal donation .

Please read my other post before you blatantly condem .

johnbgood , what pray tell me have you personaly achieved for the good of the Thai people

The post you responded to is a reflection of what previous posters on this forum have said or infered , also somewhat in line to the post i responded to , "Maybe i am being too cynical " , please lighten up and enjoy the vagaries of life a little .

Yes you was loved there and blablaisme indeed. The only thing that makes you loved is youre so called donation. Thats something everybodies tiny mind here can accept as a fact.

Don't flatter youreself so much with you so called intellect. Ive heard to so called old farts here telling me the same story over and over again. Like a war veteran the tell you how many thai friends the have and how much the spend in thailand.

Cash is friends, true friends is RARE..goes for every country.Speaking of intellect do something about that amazing spelling of yours :S

Not that mine is all that tho, but yet again you will not see me putting a feather up my ass, about my intellect.

And to stick ontopic, rain is coming, it's sad that ppl gave there live..nothing more to say about that actually.

There is little wrong with my spelling(yours?)

The 'Donation' i mentioned was to dig a ditch to prevent homes flooding and it was a success, i was on topic talking about ways to reduce the problems being experienced up north the next time around , i have never bought friends and threw little cash around in Thailand , throwing money at poor people achieves little to nothing .

I also feel sorry for the loss of lives at this time , of course i do , but you are not aware of the fact i spent 5 years during ww11 surounded by death on a daily basis , very trunatic , but we all got on with our lives the best we could under the circumstances .

Why do you not consider adding something plausable to your posts instead of blatant critisism , a modicum of humour at times would assist your dour remarks somewhat .

[BSJ]

Another thread with irrelevant or extraneous crap added for no good reason. Some of you people write utter tripe! In Oz we have a name for you 'wanke_rs'.

[george]

Irrigation officials ask Sirikit Dam to hold water release, to lesson flood flow

PHITSANULOK: -- Irrigation authorities in Thailand's critically-positioned northern province

of Phitsanulok are coordinating with Sirikit Dam officials to increase the amount of water stored in the dam,

aimed at reducing flooding in the area, while over 10,000 rai of rice crops there were already severely damaged.

Phitsanulok irrigation chief Somchai Wongsiri said agricultural areas in Wang Thong district have

been inundated by one metre deep floodwaters since September 12.

More than 10,000 rai of rice crops in the district have been destroyed, causing farmers to worry

that they would not be able to repay their debts to the government Bank for Agriculture and

Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC).

Heavy downpours continued to put Phitsanulok province under a water siege, Mr. Somchai said,

adding that irrigation officers requested Sirikit Dam officials upstream in Uttaradit province in the

northeast to reduce the amount of water being released to enable excess water from the Wang Thong

River to flow into the Nan River, rather than adding to the already overloaded river system, which could

lessen hardships among people in the province.

As the floodwaters gain volume, they flow faster and harder, causing more damage as they move

south. Currently the Yom River has a waterspeed passing through Sukhothai at over 1,000 cubic

metres per second, and the waters moving south are expected to inundate the lowlands of Phitsanulok's

Bang Rakam district, Mr. Somchai said.

Local government workers are now dredging canals to more efficiently and quickly carry away the floodwaters.

Despite the recent building of a protective embankment around the World Heritage site of a Buddhist temple called Wat Chaiwattanaram in Ayutthaya province, near Bangkok, floods caused by heavy

rain late Saturday began to inundate the temple grounds.

Officials worked through the night Saturday pumping out excessive water from the temple environs, while the rising floodwaters disrupted local subsistence fish ponds and commercial aquaculture in at least one area of Ayutthaya, a problem which is being duplicated in other areas of the country where fish stocks arev swept away in the severe flooding.

-- TNA 2008-09-21

[BPayette]

The wife is stuck in Pak Chong for 2 hrs now. Hiway 2 between Pak Chong and Saraburi is closed and flooded.

ichecked different map, its the highway from norteast....

please update me on the stuation and any dea when traffic can go through again?

She said the police told her at least 24 hrs before road would be opened, but if it's flooded for a long stretch, I would guess many days to drain off, depending on more rain.

She went back home to Chaiyaphum, will try Chai Badan tomorrow.

She also sid the police told her the roads south of hiway 2, thru the Kao Yai area area also closed.

thank you for the update, wish yours have more luck tomorrow and mine on monday...

This morning she "heard" there were still 'problems' on higwy 2 in the Pak Chong to Saraburi area, no more details.

She's headed down from Chai Badan to Saraburi right now, no issues so far.

[Considered Opinion]

Hardly any wonder people laugh at Thai Visa and think it is indicative of the average falang.

This started off as a weather report and now is 2 old men kicking each other as the rain falls.

Get a grip you two morons.

That is my..

Considered Opinion.

[ratcatcher]

Irrigation officials ask Sirikit Dam to hold water release, to lesson flood flow

Local government workers are now dredging canals to more efficiently and quickly carry away the floodwaters.

Despite the recent building of a protective embankment around the World Heritage site of a Buddhist temple called Wat Chaiwattanaram in Ayutthaya province, near Bangkok, floods caused by heavy

rain late Saturday began to inundate the temple grounds.

Officials worked through the night Saturday pumping out excessive water from the temple environs, while the rising floodwaters disrupted local subsistence fish ponds and commercial aquaculture in at least one area of Ayutthaya, a problem which is being duplicated in other areas of the country where fish stocks arev swept away in the severe flooding.

-- TNA 2008-09-21

I wonder why they weren't dredging the canals earlier this year when water levels were low?

Every year it rains hard, flooding occurs, people and livestock die.

Every year there is a drought somewhere in Thailand, people and livestock die.

Where does the annual budget for disaster prevention go?

Who is in charge of water retention and drainage?

His Majesty is always concerned about these things.

[plachon]

Irrigation officials ask Sirikit Dam to hold water release, to lesson flood flow

Local government workers are now dredging canals to more efficiently and quickly carry away the floodwaters.

Despite the recent building of a protective embankment around the World Heritage site of a Buddhist temple called Wat Chaiwattanaram in Ayutthaya province, near Bangkok, floods caused by heavy

rain late Saturday began to inundate the temple grounds.

Officials worked through the night Saturday pumping out excessive water from the temple environs, while the rising floodwaters disrupted local subsistence fish ponds and commercial aquaculture in at least one area of Ayutthaya, a problem which is being duplicated in other areas of the country where fish stocks arev swept away in the severe flooding.

-- TNA 2008-09-21

I wonder why they weren't dredging the canals earlier this year when water levels were low?

Every year it rains hard, flooding occurs, people and livestock die.

Every year there is a drought somewhere in Thailand, people and livestock die.

Where does the annual budget for disaster prevention go?

Who is in charge of water retention and drainage?

His Majesty is always concerned about these things.

Allow me to try and explain another of the "mysteries" of Thai water resources management.

Basically, if you are an official in one of the two big water resource agencies - the Royal Irrigation Dept (RID) and Water Resources Dept (WRD) - there are two budgets you can draw from. One, regular projects that require advance planning to save the country from the twin "scourges" of flood and drought and a certain amount of budgetary scrutiny and oversight. Maybe, with creative accounting, over-estimation of actual costs and corner cutting along the way it is possible for officials to skim 10 - 25 % of actual costs from these projects (allegedly). Secondly, there is the type of knee-jerk reaction water management project of the type described here which is usually a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. The funds from this are drawn from emergency budgets provided by central govt and have to be spent quickly with less oversight and scrutiny. Thus, there are ample chances for unscrupulous public servants to cream a bigger chunk of the loot and know there is unlikely to be any repercussions for one's misdeeds. Hence, declaring "drought" or "flood" "natural disasters" has become something of a national sport for particular agencies and provincial governors, even when it is a perfectly normal dry season or wet season event. Thus some provinces in northern and Isaan have become adept at claiming two sets of emergency funds for flood and drought in a single year, which explains why they are miraculously able to give exact figures for numbers of livestock drowned and rai of paddy lost even with hours of the rain. These figures quickly translate into hard cash and that means bonanza time for the officials. Type 2 budgets simply equal bigger skim opportunites (alllegedly).

This in a nutshell is how the system works and why floods and drought equal big news and dosh, but real disasters (like the daily slaughter of innocents on the nations roads) go virtually unannnounced or lamented by the powers that be. But ten cows, 100 chickens and 50 rai lost to flooding is headline stuff! It's all baht and satang in a few well-lined pockets at the end of the day.

[thaisail]

The wife is stuck in Pak Chong for 2 hrs now. Hiway 2 between Pak Chong and Saraburi is closed and flooded.

ichecked different map, its the highway from norteast....

please update me on the stuation and any dea when traffic can go through again?

She said the police told her at least 24 hrs before road would be opened, but if it's flooded for a long stretch, I would guess many days to drain off, depending on more rain.

She went back home to Chaiyaphum, will try Chai Badan tomorrow.

She also sid the police told her the roads south of hiway 2, thru the Kao Yai area area also closed.

My wife and baby are taking an overnight bus Sunday night from Loei to Bangkok. Should I advise them to remain in Loei until the the waters go down?

[robee]

This was my soi upto Wednesday afternoon, thankfully it receded inches from contaminating my swimming pool.

best to all. Picture says it all

[Jai Dee]

SRT to repair Northeast train line as flood waters subside

Director of Public Relations and Tourist Services of the State Railway Authority of Thailand Pairach Rojcharoengam (ไพรัช โรจน์เจริญงาม) revealed that the recently flood damaged stretch of rail between Baan Pai and Ta Phra (บ้านไผ่-ท่าพระ) in Khon Kaen province is no longer submerged.

The railway was suspended on the 17th of September due to heavy flooding, causing many other lines to also have to cease travel. Mr. Pairach's office however has received reports that water levels have reduced and thus maintenance authorities and engineers have been dispatched to repair the section.

The line should be able to restart operation today if rains do not continue.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 22 September 2008

[Hoppy1]

The wife is stuck in Pak Chong for 2 hrs now. Hiway 2 between Pak Chong and Saraburi is closed and flooded.

Has it never occured to anyone , that had the government dug all those irrigation ditches they have been so prolific talking about , they could also be used to divert the flood waters to humungous inground resevoirs . When the dry season comes , the water (zillions of litres) could be pumped back to provide sustanence for the shriveling up crops that we often hear farmers need compensation for . Talk is cheap . The local populace , of course , that suffer the consequences of drastic flooding , would never see the monetary and living gains from this , not worth the effort of all that digging . Just open your hand and show the money you are prepared to offer for their services to improve THEIR lives and the queue (line-up) will be many kilometers long .

I have been there and done that , where are all the souls that constantly proffess to love Thailand so much and yet do so little that is of actual consequence ? The time spent on TV by the self expressed filthy rich and highly intelectuals that do little to help the country come out of the cess pit it is , just do as Don Quixote and flail at windmills of little to no consequence , get off your derriers and PROVE a point to the Thai in general , do something POSITIVE for a change that will actualy IMPROVE this country for the impoverished that you proclaim the government wants to keep the impoverished , they would likely be clamouring for easement on visas and retirement etc .

The gauntlet is down , who will stand up like the man he proffesses to be and accept a worthwhile challenge ?

DAAANNNGG!!

Down south they have done a great job with the ditches, they are about 2.5 Meters deep and seem to fill up each time it rains. By down south I mean Hat Yai, Songkhla area. If the ditches were not in I would be stranded several times a week right now. I am not sure that it effects the local populace here, they tend to like not having to work. However you are right the filthy rich are not going to do anything to help this country, they don't in any country. It is always the middle classes that make effective changes in a country.