Yingluck govt had role in 2011 flood: Atthawit

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POLITICS

Yingluck govt had role in 2011 flood: Atthawit

THE NATION 

 

 

BANGKOK: -- A FORMER DEMOCRAT MP yesterday said he would submit information to the National Anti-Corruption Commission today about alleged water mismanagement by the Yingluck government that was partly to blame for the 2011 flood disaster.

 

Atthawit Suwannapakdee said he had information and statistics from the period before the House dissolution in May 2011, which showed water storage levels in major dams were relatively normal. 

 

Full story: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Yingluck-govt-had-role-in-2011-flood-Atthawit-30296181.html

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2016-09-26

[NongKhaiKid]

As usual here somebody always has ' information ' and in this case why has it taken so long to claim it ?

Straight out of the Chalerm operating manual " I know what happened / who did it / who's responsible etc but I'm not revealing it now. "

[AGareth2]

so did God

[Thechook]

7 minutes ago, AGareth2 said:

so did God

True but he gave himself an amnesty and has Article 44 as a backup

[NongKhaiKid]

36 minutes ago, AGareth2 said:

so did God

Isn't it about time the NLA summoned that particular person and cohort Mother Nature to explain themselves plus their links to the YL govt and Shin family ?

[AGareth2]

it started raining heavily from March

we are talking of a sea of water the size of Wales

Bangkok tried to protect itself at the expense of the country

Where was the army?

Where was the defense of the nation?

Total incompetence all round

Eyes were on the election and nature was forgotten

[BigBadGeordie]

"The Royal Rainmaking Operation Unit for the Lower Northern Region has started to make the royal rain from April until October 2011 to increase the water level in the Sirikit Dam and the Kaew Noi Bamrung Daen Dam, including the drought area."

 

An interesting report from the National News Bureau of Thailand (6 April 2011), about royal rain-making in the Chao Phraya catchment area. 

 

No further comments.

[AGareth2]

didn't she become PM in August?

This is a witch hunt

[Thechook]

1 minute ago, AGareth2 said:

didn't she become PM in August?

This is a witch hunt

It has always been personal by Prayuth.   Yingluk should have purchased those submarines when the military requested them.

[NongKhaiKid]

What happens if the PM was to manage to completely negate the Shin influence, where would he be without a bogeyman ?

Great dilemma for him, does he claim having rid the country of an evil influence and look for a new threat or roll with a version of ' Return Of The Bogeyman ' ?

[craigt3365]

I can't find the article, but there was something about a politician in Issan who ordered the dams shut so his farmers could have enough water for a second crop of rice.  This caused massive problems, obviously.  I'll try to find the article.

 

Anybody else read about that?

[craigt3365]

Interesting article here:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/oct/21/thailand-floods-bangkok

Quote

The government's response was initially inept. Different ministers issued different warnings. Inter-agency conflicts and lack of policy co-ordination were rife. Yingluck delegated and skirted around tough decisions. Her strengths of patience and even temperament became her weaknesses.

 

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20111104093419380
 

Quote

 

Meanwhile, the way dam waters are managed has been subjected to scrutiny. Decisions to discharge water from dams ultimately rest with Thai politicians and are a cabinet decision, but there are some 60 agencies also involved in such a decision.
............

The slowing down of the water flow by the Bangkok governor in his futile attempts to stop Bangkok from being flooded has seen the flood spread wider and last longer than it should have, while the high level of corruption in the country, particularly within the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, has seen drainage canals blocked by golf courses and housing estates.

 

 

[craigt3365]

Seems to be an admission of guilt here:

http://web.stanford.edu/~meehan/floodthai2011/FloodNotes17.pdf
 

Quote

 

It appears true that releases earlier in the year, when the dam was half full, could have been made, as in the past, and this would have reduced or eliminated the need for a big spill in

early October. The Agriculture Minister Theera Wongsamut later acknowledged that the controversial decision to delay the release of water from the dams was made by the

government. "I admit ordering a delay in the release of water into the plains areas so that farmers could harvest their crops first," he later said. One might add that national elections

were approaching and it was not a good time to displease the majority rural voter base. Knowledgeable water officials would later say privately that high political figures ordered the

ministry to delay releasing water. These water officials appeared to accept the conclusion that the flood damage could be blamed on these politically motivated decisions.

 

 

[metisdead]

Off topic trolling posts have been removed. 

[AGareth2]

maybe she can be blamed for the droughts as well

[Valentine]

51 minutes ago, craigt3365 said:

I can't find the article, but there was something about a politician in Issan who ordered the dams shut so his farmers could have enough water for a second crop of rice.  This caused massive problems, obviously.  I'll try to find the article.

 

Anybody else read about that?

I think you are referring to the late Mr Banharn.

[halloween]

1 hour ago, AGareth2 said:

it started raining heavily from March

we are talking of a sea of water the size of Wales

Bangkok tried to protect itself at the expense of the country

Where was the army?

Where was the defense of the nation?

Total incompetence all round

Eyes were on the election and nature was forgotten

You are unaware that the RTA was heavily involved in flood relief effort in 2011?  "RTA flood 2011" googled will give you 1,290,000 hits, including Youtube videos.

BTW their efforts did much to counter their demonisation by PTP during the election.

[jonnyscot]

I think you are referring to the late Mr Banharn.

Maybe so, although wrong geographical area if Craigt is correct, long way between issan and Suphanburi

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[halloween]

2 hours ago, NongKhaiKid said:

As usual here somebody always has ' information ' and in this case why has it taken so long to claim it ?

Straight out of the Chalerm operating manual " I know what happened / who did it / who's responsible etc but I'm not revealing it now. "

I hope he presents it as unfortunately Thai Water Watch will not backdate to show the dam inflow/outflow figures for the period.  But the available level figures show that Bhumipol was filling rapidly at that time, passing the upper control level as Yingluk took office.  A controlled heavy release was obviously appropriate, but a decision was made to delay that action.

Yes that would have caused low level areas to flood, and yes the huge volume of water coming down the Ping would still have caused flooding, but by absorbing the peak flows flooding could have been prevented in large areas and the depth of flooding reduced.

Edited September 26, 2016 by halloween

[Wildliferescue]

1 hour ago, craigt3365 said:

I can't find the article, but there was something about a politician in Issan who ordered the dams shut so his farmers could have enough water for a second crop of rice.  This caused massive problems, obviously.  I'll try to find the article.

 

Anybody else read about that?

It was not the Isarn, but Suphanburi. Banharn Silpa-Archa was behind it. 

[robblok]

It was not the Isarn, but Suphanburi. Banharn Silpa-Archa was behind it. 

Correct and YL agreed to it. Had they released the water earlier there would have been no problem. This has been known for a long time.

[craigt3365]

1 minute ago, robblok said:

Correct and YL agreed to it. Had they released the water earlier there would have been no problem. This has been known for a long time.

Known, but not widely spoken about....

[NongKhaiKid]

8 minutes ago, Wildliferescue said:

It was not the Isarn, but Suphanburi. Banharn Silpa-Archa was behind it. 

Remember too he visited Prachin Buri with YL supposedly to visit flooded communities but it looked more like rock stars on tour with all the photo ops, laughing and waving to the cameras etc.

Hardly a model of taking things seriously by either of them.

[jonclark]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

 

So many people are happy to sit in judgement after the event, but I bet none of them have ever been in charge of managing an event of such magnitude. There is widespread flooding now, albeit of a lower magnitude right now. Is Prayut to blame for that?? 

 

You cannot go around making one person culpable for the failures of countless governments (both civilian and military) which has embedded and ingrained incompetence, laziness and lack of accountability in the Thai Civil service for countless generations. The heads of the various civil service branches tell the government what they want to hear, just like they are telling Prayut what he wants to hear right now- Thailand is great and everyone is happy, exports are rebounding, tourist numbers up, the rains are under control, there are fewer and fewer bombs in the Southern provinces etc. etc. 

 

The buck stops with the government, but the failures are systematic not down to a single persons decision to do or not do something. 

[Basil B]

could have used all that excess rice to soak up the excess water... 

[robblok]

15 minutes ago, craigt3365 said:

Known, but not widely spoken about....

I was tuned in to the issue because I was flooded. I took in all information about the flooding because I had nothing better to do at the time as going out was impossible.

 

I can still accept that she had no knowledge of what was going to happen.. though she is responsible. But I cant accept that they did not tell those that were going to be affected that they would be flooded. They had satellites and planes and saw the mass of water going to BKK.. But said dont worry they just did not warn us or provide us with good intel. The reason was of course loss of face. That part I cant forgive... because of the lack of information many people including me made the wrong decisions. I was lucky that we did not need the car often and stored it at a friends condo. But many in our village were not that lucky and lost their cars. 

 

I would have moved out had i known it was going to flood and that it would last so long. I can partly excuse her for being stupid and causing this flood.. but no excuses for not giving accurate information.  

[ratcatcher]

17 minutes ago, NongKhaiKid said:

Remember too he visited Prachin Buri with YL supposedly to visit flooded communities but it looked more like rock stars on tour with all the photo ops, laughing and waving to the cameras etc.

Hardly a model of taking things seriously by either of them.

And a good time was had by all.

 

Edited September 26, 2016 by ratcatcher

[Baerboxer]

2 hours ago, AGareth2 said:

it started raining heavily from March

we are talking of a sea of water the size of Wales

Bangkok tried to protect itself at the expense of the country

Where was the army?

Where was the defense of the nation?

Total incompetence all round

Eyes were on the election and nature was forgotten

 

Actually old son it was the army who came to the rescue in our area. Even after people were moving back the army were providing transport and security having helped evacuate those who needed it.

Now ask what happened to the BiB who were again conspicuous with their absence. Do you remember allegations of aid arriving at Done Meuang being spirited away and sold off? It was all on the news.

 

Lot of incompetence all around of course. With the usual planning and critical thinking that always occurs. But there is no doubt that holding the release of water to ensure the second crops were harvested, then deliberately flooding some, having promised they wouldn't, to save the special areas, was both mismanagement and a betray of people. Blame the lot.

[Baerboxer]

2 hours ago, craigt3365 said:

Seems to be an admission of guilt here:

http://web.stanford.edu/~meehan/floodthai2011/FloodNotes17.pdf
 

 

 

In a nutshell - thank you Craig.

 

PTP and their allies rely on the rural vote. Short term thinking and hope tomorrow's consequential problem might not happen!

[robblok]

1 minute ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Actually old son it was the army who came to the rescue in our area. Even after people were moving back the army were providing transport and security having helped evacuate those who needed it.

Now ask what happened to the BiB who were again conspicuous with their absence. Do you remember allegations of aid arriving at Done Meuang being spirited away and sold off? It was all on the news.

 

Lot of incompetence all around of course. With the usual planning and critical thinking that always occurs. But there is no doubt that holding the release of water to ensure the second crops were harvested, then deliberately flooding some, having promised they wouldn't, to save the special areas, was both mismanagement and a betray of people. Blame the lot.

Agreed anyone who lived through the floods know it was the army that helped everyone. In my area the problems would have been so much bigger if the army was not there. There were some private people even giving food and water to us. But it was the army that did the most. Their big trucks helping us get through water that was 1 meter deep at places. The nearest shop that had any water and foods wat 4 km away.. but you just could not make it through the water. But the army made sure there was transportation to and from that area. 

 

I would have been happy at that time with good information, again and again we were told not to worry no floods only to have floods for around 2 months. Keeping our area flooded to safe other area's. (can accept that too) But they should have told us before.. and the knew.. i mean they had the information and withheld it causing so much extra damage and grief. As there was nothing much to do around that time the ones that stayed in the village (me and others) all blamed YL (and this was a village with many supporters of her before). The army on the other hand gained a lot of supporters with their help.