Thailand 'not Ready To Manage Disasters'

[Cheeky Farang]

Thailand 'not ready to manage disasters'

Seminar told of lack of resources, technology

ONNUCHA HUTASING

Thailand is not ready in terms of manpower, materials, money, management and technology to deal with disasters and should have a national anti-disaster command centre and public safety systems of its own, a seminar on the drafting of the national disaster prevention plan was told yesterday.

Assistant army chief Lertrat Rattanavanich, as adviser to the national disaster prevention committee, told the meeting that Thailand has failed to cope with disasters efficiently due to its lack of readiness in terms of manpower, material, money, management and technology.

He said Thailand needed full-time well-trained rescuers instead of volunteer rescuers who had no idea how to rescue people and transfer the injured properly which could result in disabilities.

In terms of material, the lack of medicines, food supplies, water, tents, knockdown houses and other necessary items for helping disaster victims as well as communication and transport problems were common in Thailand. Donations must be sought on television and radio whenever disasters struck.

On money, Gen Lertrat blamed bureaucratic red tape, saying budget allocation delays over the past six months prompted only the use of donation money to build 800 new houses and six or seven schools for tsunami victims in the South and for paying soldiers working on the project.

In terms of management, he said an example was when Thailand failed to stockpile adequate fire-extinguishing foam for putting out chemical fires as in the case of the Thai Oil refinery blaze in 2001 which prompted the import of the foam from Singapore.

In terms of technology, the adviser cited confusion in data collection on tsunami victims which had still not been resolved despite almost 1,000 computer terminals and about 5,000 data keying staff.

Chart Thai MP Nikorn Chamnong, as adviser to the committee, called for the establishment of a national anti-disaster command centre, to be chaired by the prime minister with full power to direct all disaster prevention and mitigation tasks.

He said the country's disaster prevention has always been ineffective since the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department which was in charge this year obtained budgets totalling only about two billion baht while the national disaster prevention committee only had the power to hold meetings and draft plans amid the lack of harmony among state agencies handling disaster work.

''The Hat Yai flooding caused damage totalling seven billion baht, but the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department then had only seven officials to tackle the problem,'' he said.

Pol Maj-Gen Jetjan Prawit, a specialist working for the committee, said Thailand would, in about two years, have a college for producing professional rescuers to be taught by trainers from abroad.

It is expected that the national disaster prevention plan will be officially implemented later this year after being drafted by concerned agencies, improved by experts, and endorsed in technical hearings and by the national disaster prevention committee.

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