Prayut orders provinces to plan for more floods

[rooster59]

Prayut orders provinces to plan for more floods

By The Sunday Nation

 

Farmers in Phitsanulok province rush to harvest their rice ahead of the coming of floods.

 

Facing criticism about preparedness, prime minister points to his current programmes

 

The government has stepped up its contingency plan to cope with potentially devastating floods in various parts of the country after several Northeastern and Central provinces were badly affected over the past week.

 

During yesterday’s visit to Nakorn Nayok province, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said provincial authorities, especially those in Southern provinces, need to come up with contingency plans to help residents who could be hit by floods.

 

The Nakhon Nayok provincial governor, for example, was asked to get ready for a potential flash flood, especially when there are heavy rainfalls outside the catchment areas of irrigation dams. Regarding Southern provinces, he said, local authorities need to have contingency plans focused on helping flood victims.

 

Over the past week, a total of nine Northeastern provinces and one Central province were hit hard by massive floods, namely, Sakon Nakhon, Kalasin, Nakhon Pathom, Yasothon, Amnat Charoen, Nakhon Ratchasima, Roi Et, Ubon Ratchathani, Nong Khai, and Ayutthaya. Altogether, 99 districts, 633 tambons and 5,276 villages have been inundated.

 

The Royal Irrigation Department (RID), meanwhile, has been closely monitoring the conditions of Chi River in the North, especially with regard to the riverbank’s protection walls, which could be damaged by overflows.

 

Thongplew Kongjun, deputy director-general of the RID, said the big volume of water flowing from the Upper Chi River and Pong River is expected to cause an overflow on the banks of the lower Chi River in Yasothon province over the next two days. In preparation for more floods, local authorities have moved heavy equipment and sandbags to protect residential and commercial areas in Kalasin and other nearby provinces.

 

Flood protection walls in these provinces have been partially damaged over the past week, resulting in inundation in multiple areas including those of Roi Et province.

 

To minimise damage to rice farmland in lower northern provinces such as Phitsanulok and Sukhothai, the RID also changed its water management schedule by releasing water to farmers earlier than usual so that they could finish their harvests before the floods came. So far, about 150,000 rai (24,000 hectares) of rice fields have already been harvested while work on another 115,000 rai should be done by the end of September.

 

In addition, rice farmers were encouraged to start planting seeds earlier than usual so that the RID would release irrigated water to their fields starting April 1, ahead of the start of the rainy season, to avoid potential floods damaging farmland before it was harvested. With less farmland damaged by floods, the government’s budget for subsidies is also reduced. 

 

However, some farmers will still get emergency aid of Bt3,000 per household if they are seriously affected by the current floods.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30322930

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-08-06

[BuckBee]

How about government spending money on water management as this yearly fiasco with floods and droughts is a feccing joke .

Since the late king done so much in this field think all parties would of banded together and done something special .

all they do is dredge few canals and dig few wells and talk a lot while billions get wasted and economy stalling .

I'm totally done of looking at annual water management issues in this country as just highlights the laziness and stupidity of the place .

Edited August 5, 2017 by BuckBee

[Cadbury]

1 hour ago, BuckBee said:

How about government spending money on water management as this yearly fiasco with floods and droughts is a feccing joke .

Since the late king done so much in this field think all parties would of banded together and done something special .

all they do is dredge few canals and dig few wells and talk a lot while billions get wasted and economy stalling .

I'm totally done of looking at annual water management issues in this country as just highlights the laziness and stupidity of the place .

Fully agree. Most of the time in Thailand it seems the weather dictates there is either too much rain or not enough. We hear often enough of the great engineering minds (?) in Thailand. Surely they could do something creative with the water storage systems to help find some balance between drought disasters and flood disasters.

Alas, finding the money to do this is another matter and very difficult with an egocentric military government which gives spending priority to expensive and unnecessary military hardware.

[leeneeds]

Research of snorkel rice that can grow very long stems that will allow gas to transfer to the atmosphere may help in these flooding prone areas, water proof rice may also help,  this rice can survive up to 2 weeks submerged , and in most areas we are talking about the flood waters lower or move on for what ever reason,

 

Investing the 3000 baht as a line of credit to farmers  is a short term fix, assistance in the long term needs different varieties  of rice crops to help alleviate these farmers problems, that continue each year.

[tomwct]

Thailand does very little planning other than planning how much they can skim off the budget.  In that case, they do a lot of planning.

No infrastructure, no planning, no cleaning, so your going to have flooding every year.

[Techno Viking]

Didn't Prayut in the not too distant past say that there would be no more flooding ?

[colinneil]

Mr Prayut you have a very short memory, there will not be any floods this year.

Wonder who said that.

Maybe if the man and his cronies spent more time caring about the countries problems, and less time with his silly friday lectures, spouting about all the so-called good things they are doing, the country might be better off.

[Lunchbob]

It has flooded again in Sakon in some places. The water receded/deained for about 6 hours and then it rained and the dams are full so the released water overflowed the stream system and reflooded all of the farm area. 

[Lunchbob]

2 hours ago, leeneeds said:

Research of snorkel rice that can grow very long stems that will allow gas to transfer to the atmosphere may help in these flooding prone areas, water proof rice may also help,  this rice can survive up to 2 weeks submerged , and in most areas we are talking about the flood waters lower or move on for what ever reason,

 

Investing the 3000 baht as a line of credit to farmers  is a short term fix, assistance in the long term needs different varieties  of rice crops to help alleviate these farmers problems, that continue each year.

The issue is stability. If an area floods and to what extent. No one knows how to prepare. My area has not flooded like this in 20 years. No kne expected 2 meters of water, but half a meter, OK, we understand that.

[Dobredin Ghusputin]

5 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Prayut orders provinces to plan for more floods

 

That 2011 plan that worked so well in Bangkok should be the benchmark.

 

 

[wirat69]

5 hours ago, rooster59 said:

rice farmers were encouraged to start planting seeds earlier than usual so that the RID would release irrigated water to their fields starting April 1,

Ummmm.... what has April got to do with ??September??!!!

[Cadbury]

1 hour ago, Dobredin Ghusputin said:

 

That 2011 plan that worked so well in Bangkok should be the benchmark.

 

 

At that time in BKK I had to wade through the filthy water to get from my home in Anusawari to the military trucks and tractors being used as buses. God only knows what was in the water but the lower half of my legs were indelibly stained and to a degree still are.

[YetAnother]

5 hours ago, Cadbury said:

We hear often enough of the great engineering minds (?) in Thailand.

surely you jest

[Dave67]

He should 44 it, King Canute fasion

[Thaidream]

The annual water run off from the North hasn't even started yet.  I lived in Pathum Thani during the flood of 2011.  I finally left my house by boat after the Government said to evacuate to Don Muang airport. Of course, the airport became flooded and they closed it without any further options. We had moved the cars to higher ground in another province not affected. No taxis running and no buses- we eventually flagged down a private pickup truck and he agreed to take us to Bangkok at a cost of 3,000 Baht- the trip from Pathum Thani to Bangkok took almost 8 hours.  All hotels  full.  Finally headed to Sri Racha for 3 weeks until the water subsided.  I won't even begin to describe my house when we returned.

 

If this  flood season is a repeat of the 2011 flood- God  help us- because no one else will.

[chainarong]

I just love this , looks like the PTP flood mitigation program is operating well.......................................................

[Srikcir]

17 minutes ago, chainarong said:

I just love this , looks like the PTP flood mitigation program is operating well

Prayut owns the program since the coup. Three years to mitigate ( 1more year than Yingluck) and nothing any better. Except denial that the junta failed.

[Lunchbob]

I dont feel the PM is responsible. Local officials need to do what they agreed to do, manage the reservoir levels to avoid this radical overfill, etc...

[wakeupplease]

7 hours ago, Dave67 said:

He should 44 it, King Canute fasion

He would have more chance of getting things done if he used 44

 

Not sure the weather gods would accept him or his 44, more than likely P>>>D>>> on him and the 44

Edited August 6, 2017 by wakeupplease

[JAG]

I dont feel the PM is responsible. Local officials need to do what they agreed to do, manage the reservoir levels to avoid this radical overfill, etc...

He is the (self appointed) boss.
Has been for over three years.
So...

[boomerangutang]

15 hours ago, leeneeds said:

Research of snorkel rice that can grow very long stems that will allow gas to transfer to the atmosphere may help in these flooding prone areas, water proof rice may also help,  this rice can survive up to 2 weeks submerged , and in most areas we are talking about the flood waters lower or move on for what ever reason, Investing the 3000 baht as a line of credit to farmers  is a short term fix, assistance in the long term needs different varieties  of rice crops to help alleviate these farmers problems, that continue each year.

Few Asians know this, but rice doesn't need to grow in water.  It's a field crop similar to wheat, oats, barley.  The reason it became associated with standing water was because it keeps weeds down. It can tolerate 'wet feet' but is not naturally a marsh crop like cattails or hyacinth. 

[rickudon]

Strange i haven't been able to access the reservoir levels for a couple of days - error 404 not found. Maybe do not want us to know.