Misery Lingers For Bangkok's 'Forgotten' Flood Victims

[Lite Beer]

Misery lingers for Bangkok's 'forgotten' flood victims - Focus

by Damon Wake

BANGKOK, November 27, 2011 (AFP) - When the floods came, water gushed into Arunee Ninkaew's Bangkok home through the pipes and through gaps in the tiled floor. A month later it is still there, now a putrid grey breeding ground for insects.

Weeks of living above the stagnant, foul-smelling floodwater, crammed into a single upstairs room with her diabetic husband, elderly mother-in-law and grandson, have left her in despair.

Arunee said she wakes every morning with the same feeling of hopelessness: "I think to myself 'When? When will the water go?'"

Thailand's worst floods in half a century devastated vast areas of the kingdom and have left more than 600 people dead. They are receding in many areas, but for people in some of the capital's suburbs, the misery continues.

The streets around Arunee's home in the northern district of Don Mueang are still under a metre of green water, its surface strewn with floating rubbish and glistening with petrol. The only way to get around is by boat.

Local people say they have been forgotten by authorities preoccupied with saving the shopping malls and skyscrapers of downtown Bangkok.

As the floods swept south towards the capital following months of heavy monsoon rains, huge flood barriers made of giant sandbags were erected to keep the waters away from the city's commercial districts.

This tactic kept the centre dry, but at a cost: the walls have held the waters back in northern and western areas, keeping them flooded since October.

Life in the city centre has largely returned to normal since it became clear that it was likely to escape the waters. Streets are bustling and the thousands of sandbags brought in to protect buildings are looking ever more redundant.

But anger in the flooded suburbs is growing, and there are now daily media reports of protests and people opening breaches in the sandbag wall to try to let the waters drain away.

"I watch the news until I'm almost out of my mind. I see in the city that it's almost dry and here nobody comes and sees how high the water is. The government never cares and doesn't look after us," Arunee told AFP at her flooded home.

The stench in the ground floor was overpowering -- sour and acrid, the smell of dirty water that has stood motionless in tropical heat for a month.

In places its matt grey surface seethed with insect larvae. Lizards scuttled up the mouldy walls in the darkness and there were clouds of mosquitoes everywhere.

Arunee, her arms covered in insect bites, said she had expected some flooding, but not on such a scale.

"We never expected it to be this much and we never expected it to be this long. We have really suffered. It's really hard. We can't go anywhere," she said.

The 48-year-old used to make a living selling groceries and snacks but she has not been able to work since the floods came, and her husband and mother-in-law have not even left the house.

Instead they survive on money sent by her son and pass the time as best they can in the small first-floor room, sleeping and watching TV.

Nearly 42,000 people are living in evacuation shelters around Bangkok, but many people stayed in their homes. Arunee said that of the 400 or so houses on her estate, 20 are still occupied.

Her neighbour Anuroj Jaisaard said the floods were the worst he had known in more than 20 years of living in Don Mueang, and he was shocked the disaster could have reached such a scale in a land used to monsoon rains and annual inundations.

"I don't want to talk about politics because if I start I won't stop," he told AFP, while fishing from the first floor of his house.

"But this is not a normal situation. This is not natural. Someone has to take responsibility for this -- someone has to take the blame."

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has declared central Bangkok safe from the floods, but Arunee urged her to do more.

"I want her to help so that the poor people can go back to work. It's bad to be like this and it's not good that nobody helps. We have been forgotten. This village has been forgotten," she said.

The government has begun pumping water away from some of the worst-affected areas of the city.

Defence minister General Yutthasak Sasiprapa said he was confident the floods would be gone before the end of the year and urged people to be patient.

But for Arunee and her neighbours, the possibility of yet another month under water is likely to test their forbearance to the limit.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2011-11-27

[catmac]

"Local people say they have been forgotten by authorities preoccupied with saving the shopping malls and skyscrapers of downtown Bangkok."

Sums it up in a nutshell, and we all know which aristocratic twit was responsible for that policy.

[whybother]

"Local people say they have been forgotten by authorities preoccupied with saving the shopping malls and skyscrapers of downtown Bangkok."

Sums it up in a nutshell, and we all know which aristocratic twit was responsible for that policy.

Yingluck was in charge, wasn't she?

[hellodolly]

It is one thing to read about it and another to experience it.

To bad it did not happen in Issan rather than Bangkok and let the Thaksin supporters see what their leader is really like.

[MaxYakov]

This tactic kept the centre dry, but at a cost: the walls have held the waters back in northern and western areas, keeping them flooded since October.

For an overview from Professor Seree Supratid who appears regularly on Thai PBS in both English and Thai language segments with many informative maps:

1) Thai PBS Dr Seree English-language Dailies

2) Thai PBS Dr Seree Thai-language Dailies

3) Thai PBS Dr Seree Flood Maps, English-language Dailies

Image courtesy Thai PBS 26 Nov 2011 Thai-language Dr Seree report segment of a recent survey of the Pathum Thani area.

GM Link

Edited November 27, 2011 by MaxYakov

[Orac]

It is one thing to read about it and another to experience it.

To bad it did not happen in Issan rather than Bangkok and let the Thaksin supporters see what their leader is really like.

Erm - didn't Isaan have 'the worst flood in decades' last year???

[h90]

"Local people say they have been forgotten by authorities preoccupied with saving the shopping malls and skyscrapers of downtown Bangkok."

Sums it up in a nutshell, and we all know which aristocratic twit was responsible for that policy.

With the disaster law, Yingluck is in full power.....didn't know that she is aristocratic.

[ratcatcher]

"Local people say they have been forgotten by authorities preoccupied with saving the shopping malls and skyscrapers of downtown Bangkok."

Sums it up in a nutshell, and we all know which aristocratic twit was responsible for that policy.

With the disaster law, Yingluck is in full power.....didn't know that she is aristocratic.

I think catmac referring to P.M. Yingluck as a twit is rather harsh.

[Gippy]

We live in another forgotten area, Laksi. Flooded now for five and a half weeks and today I saw the first sign of relief supplies. There was a small boat with relief bags, some fried chicken and a group of helpers. They didn't want to hand out the supplies even when we told them we live in the area and were busy eating the fried chicken and sticky rice. We went home hungry. Maybe had to wait for the cameras to arrive? Thanks a frocing bunch.

[Macx]

>

>"But this is not a normal situation. This is not natural. Someone has to take >responsibility for this -- someone has to take the blame."

>

Agreed.

One writer wrote this about America, but it seems quite applicable here:

"Many are to blame, including all voters who sell their votes, all citizens who pay bribes to police and corrupt officials, all the wealthy who do nothing while the strong suppress the weak, all the poor who mistake wealth for integrity, all parents who cheat and lie before the eyes of their children, and all who know better but chose to ignored their conscience." --Andrew X. Pham

[marquess]

We live in another forgotten area, Laksi. Flooded now for five and a half weeks and today I saw the first sign of relief supplies. There was a small boat with relief bags, some fried chicken and a group of helpers. They didn't want to hand out the supplies even when we told them we live in the area and were busy eating the fried chicken and sticky rice. We went home hungry. Maybe had to wait for the cameras to arrive? Thanks a frocing bunch.

I had some of that fried chicken on Friday,relief supplies have come here to Don Muang a couple of times but not many.

[slapout]

Going in to coffee shop early this morning, here in Chiang Mai, I had to detour around my normal route. This was for 12,600 monks to receive alms and whatever along Chang Klan road. I had to think how much it would/could help if the thousands going to the ceremony, would send same to those in need.

I think this kind of typifies the attitude of many in the government and thru out the general population during this disaster. When 80% of the people responding to a survey, figure that corruption has/is occurring via relief supplies/effort and more than 60% accept corruption as 'the way things are', it would seem to be a pretty dismal way of responding for those who profess to be such good people.

[MaxYakov]

>

>"But this is not a normal situation. This is not natural. Someone has to take >responsibility for this -- someone has to take the blame."

>

Agreed.

One writer wrote this about America, but it seems quite applicable here:

"Many are to blame, including all voters who sell their votes, all citizens who pay bribes to police and corrupt officials, all the wealthy who do nothing while the strong suppress the weak, all the poor who mistake wealth for integrity, all parents who cheat and lie before the eyes of their children, and all who know better but chose to ignored their conscience." --Andrew X. Pham

Andrew X. Pham - Wiki

[MaxYakov]

We live in another forgotten area, Laksi. Flooded now for five and a half weeks and today I saw the first sign of relief supplies. There was a small boat with relief bags, some fried chicken and a group of helpers. They didn't want to hand out the supplies even when we told them we live in the area and were busy eating the fried chicken and sticky rice. We went home hungry. Maybe had to wait for the cameras to arrive? Thanks a frocing bunch.

GM Link Lak Si, I presume.

[givenall]

People have to live with choices they make. They choose thisgovernment and now you can see their true face. So live with it.[

This government focus is only on one thing and it is to getThaksin back here. So dream on if you think they will help the flood victims [/font][/size]

[kimamey]

You have to feel really sad for people who are having to live like this and hope their lives can improve quickly.

As in all things there is humour although not always intended and this line gave me a guilty smile.

"I don't want to talk about politics because if I start I won't stop," he told AFP, while fishing from the first floor of his house.

My gf works in the Centre for Skill Development in Mahasarakham and is in Bang Len, Nakhon Pathom helping out. Not sure how bad it is there.

[FrankieDimes]

"Local people say they have been forgotten by authorities preoccupied with saving the shopping malls and skyscrapers of downtown Bangkok."

Sums it up in a nutshell, and we all know which aristocratic twit was responsible for that policy.

Forgotten?? Didn't they receive 5000 baht from the government!

[aussiebebe]

This is the most graphic and well-crafted account of the flooding that I've read, the description of the smell and sense of danger and hopelessness is made all the more vivid through the readers' acknowledgement that is has been forgotten about and ignored.

[OZEMADE]

Why dont they just open all the barricades and flood walls and canal gates. Just let the water go, if they had of done this in the first place it possibly would be all in the Gulf by now. If they dont get rid of it soon, they will have that much sickness and disease they will not be able to handle it.

Now they have the same problem in the south and the cold in the north. heaven forbid if they get any more heavy rain in the north.