Thai PM Yingluck To Head New Flood Agency

[gemini81]

Or instead of head, just write a book: How not to handle floods, by Yingluk Shinawatra.

[gemini81]

Will she turn up to meetings? She heads the government and she hardly ever turns up to parliament or cabinet meetings.

No, a minor case of food poisoning takes, you know, 1 week to several weeks in the hospital as well as begging for a lot of sympathy.

[Buchholz]

PM: Government has clear water management plan

BANGKOK - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Sunday reaffirmed that her government has clear water management plans and is ready to handle the upcoming rainy season.

The premier made remarks following the comments of Smith Dharmasaroja, natural disaster expert and a member of Strategic Committee for Water Resources Management, saying that the government still had no clear plan dealing water resources.

"Though the plan did not go into detail for everything, it can be clarified," said the premier.

Continues:

http://www.pattayamail.com/news/pm-government-has-clear-water-management-plan-9759

-- Pattaya Mail 2012-01-31

[ratcatcher]

Love it, 27 completely stupid negative posts, critical of a government trying to do something.

Hope you guys never get wet feet, we'd never hear the end of it.

Well phil, now that you've slagged off all the previous posters as stupid and negative, how about a positive comment from you?

Actually I spent 3 months last year with wet feet, and like many on this forum am somewhat cautious about government announcements.

[gemini81]

Love it, 27 completely stupid negative posts, critical of a government trying to do something.

Hope you guys never get wet feet, we'd never hear the end of it.

They haven't done anything useful, as promised, or clever yet, that's the criticism. We did get our feet wet, that's the problem..cars and homes too..and no work.

[Old Man River]

Is this a joke?

It's like the guy who was mayor of New Orleans when Katrina happened, who turned a disaster into a compound disaster, now hiring himself out as an expert in disaster management.

Can't wait to see how they do that, a sort of "dummy run" ...

Talking about running for re-election already?

She is not hiring herself out as an expert. She is taking responsibility for what might happen in the future. How many politicians do you know who will do this?

Remember, Thaksin has always been big on foreign investment. It is where the money is.

So then the buck will stop where?

The "buck" for the past flood will remain political. For future floods while she is PM it will stop with her. Foreign investment is very important to the power behind the PTP.

[siampolee]

Yinglucks flood drill.

[philw]

Love it, 27 completely stupid negative posts, critical of a government trying to do something.

Hope you guys never get wet feet, we'd never hear the end of it.

Well phil, now that you've slagged off all the previous posters as stupid and negative, how about a positive comment from you?

Actually I spent 3 months last year with wet feet, and like many on this forum am somewhat cautious about government announcements.

You prove the point.

We never hear the end of it.

[MikeOboe57]

[...] a government trying to do something. [...]

A precise description of the whole problem - unintentionally...

[Buchholz]

I can tell you that many foreign companies based at the massive High-Tec manufacturing complex near Ayutthaya/Rojana are not investing money in rebuilding and replacing in plant and machinery because they have no confidence in government preventing more flooding and haven't seen any viable plans, some have or are relocating to industrial areas near Rayong and others have just closed down their operations.

STATS ChipPAC to shut Thailand plant

STATS ChipPAC has announced that the company will not resume assembly operations in its Thailand plant due to extensive equipment and facility damage beyond economic restoration. The plant is situated in the Navanakorn Industrial Estate, Pathum Thani, which was suspended due to the flooding in Thailand during the fourth quarter of 2011.

STATS ChipPAC added it will continue to shift production to its other manufacturing sites in Singapore, Korea and China to support demand from customers affected by the disruption.

"The decision to not resume full operations in Thailand was painful but unavoidable given the significant damage to our Thailand assembly operational environment that severely affected our ability to support the ongoing demand from our customers.

Continues:

http://www.digitimes...20201PR201.html

DIGITIMES - 1 February 2012

=======================================================

Additional info:

STATS ChipPAC Thailand's 463,000 square foot assembly and test operation

Pathumthani, Thailand

http://www.statschip...ations/scb.aspx

No mention of how many workers, but I hazard to guess more than a few.

.

Edited February 1, 2012 by Buchholz

[Buchholz]

PM Yingluck to head new flood agency

Water committee passes budget for short-term flood prevention

BANGKOK, 2 February 2012 (NNT) - The Strategic Committee for Water Resources Management has approved a budget of seven billion baht for short-term water management. Provinces in the lower part of the Chao Phraya River are slated to be floodways.

Minister of Science and Technology Plodprasop Suraswadi said the government and the Strategic Committee for Water Resources Management nodded to six programs for the short-term water management. The programs, worth seven billion baht, should be completed around June to July this year the latest.

-- NNT 2012-02-02

Edited February 2, 2012 by Buchholz

[OzMick]

How to handle a flood:

1/ form a committee

2/ designate flooded area as a floodway

Now inundation is not a flood, but natural flow through a floodway. Problem solved.

[nong38]

What floods? I see no floods.

[ResX]

One very simple task the PM could complete is lower the water level in the dams. Currently many of Thailand's dams are holding more water than this same time last year. I recall the PM mentioned part of her flood management strategy was to not allow the capacity of any dam to exceed 50%. Mae Kuang in Chiang Mai is 103% of storage capacity while Bhumibol is 91% of storage capacity. Last year this time Bhumibol was just 60% of storage capacity.

When the dams reach their maximum Full Supply Levels,(FSLs) they take long to draw down the levels to their respective safe operating levels. Don't hope for impossibility. The dams operators need at least 3-6 months to restore the normal operating levels. Don't be fooled by a person who makes comparision dams water levels between this year and the last. It doesn't completely work that way. During last year the dams levels were approaching flood season from dry season during the previous year. This year they are approaching from the previous wet season. These two scenarios, somehow should share the same objective doesn't matter what, i.e. by 1st Oct this year all dams levels shall be kept below the least required levels for flood control.

As afr as I can see, at least for the Bhumibol and Sirkit, their draw down plans for flood control are on targets. It can be learnt that Water Managemrent authorities also mentioned their willingness to go for forced draw down if standard approach to draw down the dams levels will not work. This is somethintg that you shall appreciate if you know that such decision is not a simple decision. It needs sacrife that could run >10 millions USD per annum. Hopefully they (Water Management authorities) know how to deal with forced draw down for multi dams systems. Otherwise thedy will create artificial floods....

To conclude, flood control strategy for Thailand for this year is a lot better than the last year. At least we can see they have the right plan, unlike last year....

Good luck Thailand.

P/S -

One of our flood control reservoir, by today is exactly 100% filled. The management of the reservoir constantly communnicates with me and other authorities by 4-hourly basis. This is my advice to the management "Nothing much to worry about it and just show we are in control over the situation for every public statement that you have to make- since we are really still in control".