Thailand Needs Central Agency To Prepare For Disasters: Global Warming

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GLOBAL WARMING

Good data needed to prepare for disasters

By Wannapa Khaopa

The Nation

Thailand needs central agency to gather all information so it is better prepared: experts

People across the world are facing the risk of disasters that will lead to huge losses, and Thailand is no exception. However, each country can reduce these losses if it has a good disaster plan and risk-management scheme.

In order to achieve this, up-to-date information is essential. Thailand, however, does not have up-to-date data to help it prepare a good disaster-prevention plan, Thai and foreign experts said yesterday.

"Thailand does not have good disaster data," Andrew Maskrey, Global Assessment Report (GAR) coordinator for the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction Secretariat, said. He was speaking at the regional media launch of GAR on Disaster Risk Reduction for Asia at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand.

Professor Thanawat Jarupongsakul, a lecturer at Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Science's Unit for Disaster and Land Information Studies, said data about disasters in Thailand was scattered. "Many agencies, including universities, have collected the data, but they've done it separately. We do not have any agencies that act as a central organisation to gather and disseminate disaster data and warning.

"From now on, Thailand is at the risk of facing more severe disasters, including typhoons, landslides and floods, due to global warming. We're seeing more losses in terms of lives and assets," Thanawat said, citing his analysis based on records that show more occurrences of disasters over the past few years.

Meanwhile, the report revealed that the number of deaths caused by cyclones or floods was declining globally, but the risk of economic losses associated with these disasters was rising in all regions. It also said that drought was a hidden risk, because compared to other hazards, it still remained poorly understood and badly managed.

Maskrey said that though good progress was being made at national, local and community levels, economic losses were still on the rise.

Therefore, he urged the authorities to look into how disaster risks can be reduced through planning and public investments. "We're still building too many unsafe housing facilities and roads that get damaged in floods. This is the challenge that Asian governments will have to address," he added.

The report urged that development should be made sensitive to disaster and climate risks, and called on the reform of risk governance by ensuring political authority and policy coherence as well as developing a culture of partnership.

He said governments would not be convinced by a report from the United Nations, but would pay heed when losses start becoming unsustainable and when they start seeing larger percentages of the public budget going to relief, recovery and reconstruction. "That's when they will start thinking that they have to do something. You have to see the suffering to find a way out of this suffering. They will have to feel the losses to do something about it. The losses are already rising, so more and more governments are starting to see that this is a problem that they will have to do something about," Maskrey said. "Thailand should start by gathering good data."

Meanwhile, Thanawat said politicians should set up effective and practical early-warning systems for loss prevention rather than just handing out relief bags.

-- The Nation 2011-05-24

[dunkin2012]

seeing larger percentages of the public budget going to relief, recovery and reconstruction. "That's when they will start thinking that they have to do something.

true.....

that means no prevention methods.

let's see the next gov.

how can they react on this matter?

[BarnicaleBob]

Thailand already has most of what it needs to have an effective disaster preparedness program, what is lacking is centralized and unified command and control over the various agencies within Thailand to oversee it. Such an agency need not be large, it only needs a central office to coordinate with the various local governments throughout Thailand. This agency should have the power to implement a unified reporting system to tack assets of the local governments and to ask for minor changes in these governments operations so that the central agency knows exact numbers of manpower, equipment and other resources are available. Another thing needed will be a mandated reporting process during and after disasters to assess the damage and casualties. This would consist of a simple report form that could be filled out by any government units responding to a disaster as well as those that are in the stricken areas. This would assist the new agency in cataloging where the arriving assets need to be deployed.

There also needs to be a unified emergency interagency radio communications system in place and ready to use so that if assets from other parts of the Kingdom need to respond they will be able to function properly without inference.

This agency would also have the authority to set up command and control centers in disaster areas to coordinate rescue and law enforcement in that area. This would require various agencies to work together and to avoid power struggles over who is in charge this agency would have the power to temporally to assume power and control over all government departments within the disaster area. This should keep everyone working together and on the same page in the rescue and recovery operations.

[slapout]

Why not look at prevention of problems which you can control. Cutting down the forests, mudslides/floods prevention. Green house (CO2) effect, put in place stringent emission standards for fossil fuels. Waste of natural resources and those we can harness, solar, hydro, wind, etc. You have to approach the cost of remedial action for what you are doing wrong, instead of trying to fund the cost for result of the initial problems.

[RickBradford]

Why not look at prevention of problems which you can control. Cutting down the forests, mudslides/floods prevention. Green house (CO2) effect, put in place stringent emission standards for fossil fuels

Thailand cannot control the 'greenhouse effect'. No matter what little ol' Thailand does, China, India, Indonesia, Russia, Brazil and so on are going to keep pouring more of the CO2 stuff into the atmosphere, so for Thailand to 'put in place stringent emission standards for fossil fuels', would be a pointless and damaging exercise.

...those we can harness, solar, hydro, wind, etc.

The problem with this argument is that the billions of baht needed to subsidize wind and solar energy have to come from somewhere.

They usually come out of the public purse and so you have correspondingly less to spend on things like schools, health care for the elderly, or infrastructure. Either that or you have to raise taxes all round on an already relatively poor populace.

[Humphrey Bear]

Why not look at prevention of problems which you can control. Cutting down the forests, mudslides/floods prevention. Green house (CO2) effect, put in place stringent emission standards for fossil fuels

Thailand cannot control the 'greenhouse effect'. No matter what little ol' Thailand does, China, India, Indonesia, Russia, Brazil and so on are going to keep pouring more of the CO2 stuff into the atmosphere, so for Thailand to 'put in place stringent emission standards for fossil fuels', would be a pointless and damaging exercise.

...those we can harness, solar, hydro, wind, etc.

The problem with this argument is that the billions of baht needed to subsidize wind and solar energy have to come from somewhere.

They usually come out of the public purse and so you have correspondingly less to spend on things like schools, health care for the elderly, or infrastructure. Either that or you have to raise taxes all round on an already relatively poor populace.

And if there is such a thing as man-made global warming, then if all countries say "We don't see why we should do anything, because China, India and Brazil - the three biggest polluters - are doing nothing", then nothing will ever get done and we will all be in big trouble.

Things like re-forestation will go towards reducing the carbon levels and will help prevent landslides. This is not just global warming, this is plain common sense.

So-called 'renewable energy' devices, such as wind farms, are expensive and Thailand has no need of them. But their energy has to come from somewhere and to me hydro-generation on tributaries of the Mekong would be better than coal. Gas is in limited supply and Thailand is trying to use it to replace oil, rather than coal. Let them keep doing so.

It is not for us to tell Thailand what to do - but neither is it up to the UN, who seem to want to foist another layer of bureaucracy on to third world countries.

[Honolulu]

Or you could just create another centralized Government agency that sits around and does absolutely nothing but collect a paycheck. Then you could hire some guys to watch those guys. And then when unemployment becomes a problem, you could hire some more guys, to watch the guys that are watching the guys.

[RickBradford]

But their energy has to come from somewhere and to me hydro-generation on tributaries of the Mekong would be better than coal

Fair enough, hydro is a fairly well tested form of energy, but then again, as soon as Thailand signs up for hydro plants on the Mekong, the UN and its green NGOs get up on their hind legs and start bleating about the environmental devastation they believe these dams will cause (google Xayaburi).

You simply can't win with these UN/NGO people unless you go and live in a yurt powered by tallow candles.

[slapout]

Rick; I agree with your statement "Thailand cannot control the greenhouse effect" but they can certainly do some good with Thailand's contribution to it. If enough countries make that first, one small step the increasing bigger steps are going to follow. As mentioned pointing fingers at others will only result in no progress at all.

[RickBradford]

If enough countries make that first, one small step the increasing bigger steps are going to follow

I don't believe that the Chinese Communist Party is going to do a single thing which would imperil China's economic, political and military growth (and with it, its own legitimacy to run the country), and that includes attempts to cut its CO2 emissions.

In fact, the Chinese do not remotely believe in the notion of Man-Made Global Warming nor in the efficacy of “alternative energy”.and are on track to build 500 new coal-fired power plants over the next decade -- that's almost one a week. Here's the bottom line: CO2 concentration in the atmosphere is going to rise significantly over the next 40 years and we will have to see what that brings us.

I think Thailand should echo this pragmatic approach, and not threaten its own development because of a Western-driven fad for 'green energy'.

[slapout]

The Danes have been doing some very interesting analysis of ice cores which they have recovered. Pre Industrial revolution (1750), Measured CO2 with small variation was 180 ppm, post 1750, their measurements have shown an increase to close to 300 ppm, largely from the use of fossil fuels. Most of this in the past 100 years. They have also charted temperature variations. They have made several projections based on what they have learned and possible/probable temperature change, if the trend continues.

[swifty5x5]

All Thailand needs is one guy that can change the batteries.

[Tanaka]

Global warming? The professor has not been told there is no global warming but a climate change.

/quote/ This would require various agencies to work together and to avoid power struggles over who is in charge this agency would have the power to temporally to assume power and control over all government departments within the disaster area. This should keep everyone working together and on the same page in the rescue and recovery operations. /unquote

And this is a perfect example why it won't work in Thailand. Work together, planning, someone in charge over someone else? Dream on.