Flood solution: Plans & coordination

People acting alone without long-term plans, building houses & factories on floodplains & then floodwalls to protect them, leads to disaster.

Boats have replaced cars in the housing and industrial estates of northern Bangkok. 

In photo above a boat rescues stranded workers at Rojana Industrial Park in Ayutthaya.

Click button to listen to What Water Management? to download

EDITORIAL: What water management? (21/10/2011) 

Thailand is paying an exorbitant price for poor water management, unregulated urban planning and state incompetence. More than 2 million people in 23 provinces have been suffering from the floods for months. More than 300 people have perished. Ricefields and nearly all industrial estates in the Central Plain have been inundated, dampening the national economy for the long haul. The floodwaters are already lapping at Bangkok. Yet the government's handling of the deluge has hardly changed from day-to-day crisis management, with poor and inadequate information as the rule rather than the exception.

It will be months before the floodwaters recede. When that happens, the country will still be overwhelmed with the day-to-day rehabilitation and economic recovery schemes. Colour-coded politics will return to bog the country down with political infighting, leaving the need for a comprehensive solution to the flood problem unattended. Climate experts have repeatedly warned that the next flood disaster will come much sooner than we think. According to Anond Snidvongse, director of the Southeast Asia Global Change System for Analysis, Research and Training, the country is experiencing a new climate pattern which makes freak storms more frequent and severe. Extreme weather and flooding will become a regular occurrence in this country. This new reality has yet to sink into the collective Thai consciousness because the country has long been blessed with a mild tropical climate. So long as this old belief persists, the country cannot possibly get its act together to alleviate public hardship from floods and other natural disasters.

Thailand has experienced massive inundation before. But with less urban sprawl and lighter concentration of industrial zones in low-lying areas, the damage caused was much less disastrous than what we've seen these past two years. If anything, the recent floods have shown us what the problems are. Different agencies with overlapping water management authority are working as separate fiefdoms without integrating their database. There is no coordination in the planning and policy implementation among the different water-related agencies. In a crisis, the result shifts from inefficiency to utter chaos.

During normal times, unregulated urban planning and industrialisation in flood-prone areas might have not have been questioned. But no longer. Residents and industries have to consider whether they need to relocate to safer areas, redesign their houses and factories to live with the floods, or risk nature's wrath every year. They also should rethink the idea of fortifying flood walls for better self-protection. It is these ubiquitous flood barriers that have prevented the water from flowing into the sea as quickly as it should.

Bangkok's network of flood walls has encouraged other provinces to set up their own, thereby intensifying the water's lethal power once its volume becomes large enough to destroy whatever gets in the way. Instead of going separate ways - which creates conflicts among local communities - these flood barriers should be designed as an integrated network to make the water's course more predictable and thus less harmful. But this can only be accomplished if water management is transparent.

The challenge is huge. Water agencies will not easily give up their organisational interests. The people and industries will not give up old habits and investment easily. These hindrances need to ironed out quickly. Or we'll all be sitting soaked for months every year.

(Source: Bangkok Post, EDITORIAL, What water management, 21/10/2011, link) 

Urban and Regional Planning Vocabulary

urban - of or in a city or town ในเมือง

urban planning - government planning of how land in the city will be used in the long-term and to provide coordination and a check on individual building that could be harmful to the community as a whole, also includes urban renewal to stimulate new investment in old decaying parts of town   (See Wikipedia)

regional planning - creating long-term plans for the "efficient placement of land use activities, infrastructure, and settlement growth across a larger area of land than an individual city or town," this includes resisting "development in flood plains or along earthquake faults. These areas may be utilised as parks, or unimproved farmland" (See Wikipedia)

unregulated - an activity without rules or laws governing it
unregulated urban planning  

water management - planning the use of water resources, fairly allocating water to competing demands for water; for agriculture this means storing water behind dams for use during the dry season when there are droughts and very little water, and preparing adequate drainage systems for periods of heavy rain and flooding (See Wikipedia and also see the Wikipedia Water Portal)
poor water management - water management that has not been done very well

drainage - the removal of water from an area (See Wikipedia)

exorbitant - (especially of prices or demands) much too large มากเกินไป สูงเกินไป
exhorbitant price - a very high price (very expensive)
paying an exorbitant price for poor water management

industrial estates - areas for factories with special infrastructure such as transportation, electricity, water, waste disposal, also call "industrial park" (See Wikipedia)

rescue - save, help someone who is in danger ช่วยชีวิต
stranded - to be stuck in a place that you cannot leave (need to be rescued by someone) ตกปลัก
rescue stranded workers - get workers who cannot leave a place because they are surrounded by water

competent (adjective) - able to complete a task successfully (has the needed ability, skills, training, experience, etc)
incompetent (adjective) - cannot complete a task successfully
incompetence (noun) - when a person or organization fails (to do the things it is suppposed to do) 

state - government รัฐ
state incompetence - when the state fails (to do what it needs to do)

suffering - physical or mental pain or problems ความทุกข์ทรมาน
suffering from the floods

perish - die
300 people have perished - 300 people have died

inundated - flooded ถูกน้ำท่วม, จมลงใต้น้ำ
industrial estates have been inundated

dampening - reducing the size of
for the long haul - for a very long time
dampening the national economy for the long haul

lap - water touching something gently and making a soft sound
floodwaters lapping at Bangkok

deluge - when a large amount of water arrives at a place

crisis - an urgent, difficult or dangerous situation วิกฤตการณ์ วิกฤต
day-to-day crisis management

inadequate - not enough to achieve goals; not good enough for a particular purpose อย่างไม่เพียงพอ
inadequate information - not enough information

exception - something that does not follow the general rule ยกเว้น ข้อยกเว้น
the rule rather than the exception - what usually happens (the rule), not what sometimes happens (the exception)

inadequate information as the rule rather than the exception.

recede - to move back; to move further away into the distance ถอยหลัง
floodwaters recede

overwhelmed - have too much of something, so you cannot deal with it or handle it (example: Sorry, I cannot meet you, because I am overwhelmed with work.)

rehabilitation - improve condition so that it can operate again;  to make acceptable and suitable for use again;  the process of making normal again after suffering injury or harm; the process of returning someone or something to a good or healthy condition, state or way of living การทำให้กลับสู่สภาพเดิม, การทำให้กลับมาดีเหมือนเดิม making a system, building, etc., suitable for use again, i.e., bringing it back to a good condition การฟื้นฟูสภาพกิจการ

recovery - becoming strong and healthy again after an illness or a problem; when the economy gets better (more jobs, higher incomes) ฟื้นฟู การฟื้นฟูสภาพ
schemes - systems for achieving some goal
economic recovery schemes - a system for making the economy better again (repairing the economic damage after the floods)

bog down - make something move very slowly (because of a heavy burden)
infighting - fighting and competition between members of the same group
bog the country down with political infighting

comprehensive - complete, includes everything needed; covering all possible aspects or dimensions ที่ครอบคลุม
comprehensive solution - a complete solution, that covers everything

disaster - something very bad that happens and causes a lot of damage or kills a lot of people ความหายนะ ภัยพิบัติ
flood disaster  
natural - found in nature (not made in a factory by humans) ตามธรรมชาติ
natural disasters - a bad event caused by nature that causes a lot of damage such as an earthquake, tsunami, floods, storm, etc (See Wikipedia)

climate - the general weather conditions usually found in a particular place สภาพอากาศ
pattern - a series of actions or events that together show how things normally happen or are done
climate pattern - weather conditions that repeat themselves over and over again

freak - a very unusual and extreme event
freak storms - a very unusual and strong storm

frequent - happening often เกิดขึ้นบ่อย
severe - very serious and worrying ที่รุนแรง ที่น่าเป็นห่วง

occurrence - something that happens เหตุการณ์ เหตุการณ์ที่เกิดขึ้น, สิ่งที่เกิดขึ้น
a regular occurrence - an event that happens often (every year, for example)

reality - that is rally and actually happening ความเป็นจริง
sink - to (cause something or someone to) go down below the surface or to the bottom of a liquid or soft substance จม
collective - involving all the members of a group ที่เป็นจำนวนมาก ที่เป็นกลุ่มใหญ่; โดยรวม ทั้งคณะ (การตัดสินชี้ขาดจากศาล)
the collective Thai consciousness - what all or most Thai people think (their shared thoughts)
sink into the collective Thai consciousness - when most Thai people reach an understanding (of this important reality)

this new reality has yet to sink into the collective Thai consciousness -

tropical - relating to the hottest area of the Earth, between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn ในเขตร้อน
blessed with a mild tropical climate - lucky to have weather that is not too hot and not too cold, weather that makes life easy

get its act together - finally be successful, after failing (organizing itself and doing what is necessary for success)

alleviate - make better, make a bad situation better (solve a problem or make a problem less severe)
hardship - when life is difficult and unpleasant (usually due to a lack of money)
alleviate hardship - make difficult situations easier for people
alleviate public hardship

massive - very large in size, amount or numberใหญ่โต มหาศาล
inundation - flooding น้ำท่วม
massive inundation - very heavy flooding (large amounts of water, very high (3 meters), for a long time)

sprawl - spreading over a very large area of land; growing outward in an uncontrolled way
urban sprawl - when a city is spread over a very large area (growing outward in an uncontrolled way

concentration - a lot of something in one place แหล่งชุมนุม หรือ ศูนย์รวม
industrial zone - areas where there are a lot of factories
low-lying areas - areas that are low, at the same level as rivers (areas that are not on high ground, in the hills) 
concentration of industrial zones in low-lying areas

disastrous - extremely bad or unsuccessful ซึ่งทำให้เกิด (ภัยพิบัติ, ความหายนะ, ความโชคร้าย)
overlapping - (of areas of land) covering parts of each other ที่คาบเกี่ยวกัน
authority - power; the power to make decisions or tell people what to do; the power to control events อำนาจ, อำนาจในการสั่งการ
Different agencies with overlapping water management authority

fiefdoms - many small little states ruled by a prince or lord in the middle ages (feudalism) (See Wikipedia)

database - a large amount of information stored in a computer in an organised way ฐานข้อมูล
integrating their database

coordination - the act of making all the people involved in a plan or activity work together in an organised way; working together to achieve a shared goal การประสานกัน

policy - a plan of action to guide decisions and achieveoutcomes (See Wikipedia) นโยบาย
implementation - execution of a plan; actually do or carry out a plan; making a plan into reality; making sure that something that is planned actually gets done (See glossary) นำ (แผนการ) มาบังคับใช้
policy implementation

efficient (adjective) - doing or achieving a lot using a small amount of resources
efficiency (noun)
inefficiency (noun) - the state of condition of not being efficient (not achieving much; even with great resources)

chaos - a situation in which everything is confused and in a mess การจราจล ความยุ่งเหยิง, ความสับสน
utter chaos - a state or condition of complete chaos

unregulated urban planning - when there are no regulations or laws to control people building the way they want

industrialisation in flood-prone areas - building factories in areas that flood easily (low-lying areas next to rivers)

relocate - move to another location ย้ายไปตั้งอีกที่หนึ่ง
relocate to safer areas - move to a safer place

risk - danger, how likely or possible it is for a bad event that causes harm and damage ความเสี่ยง
wrath - extreme anger ความโกรธเคือง
risk nature's wrath every year

fortify - building strong protection against some danger (forts)
ubiquitous - found everywhere, existing in every place

 fortifying flood walls for better self-protection
ubiquitous flood barriers

network - a large system of connected parts, organisations, people, etc. เครือข่าย
network of flood walls

encouraged - having more confidence or hope about something มีกำลังใจ
encouraged other provinces to set up their own

intensifying - more effort is being put into an activity
lethal - very dangerous and able to kill you เป็นอันตรายถึงชีวิต
intensifying the water's lethal power

volume - the quantity or amount of something

conflicts - angry disagreements and fighting between people or groups ความขัดแย้ง
local - in or related to the area that you live, or to the particular area that you are talking about ท้องถิ่น
conflicts among local communities

integrated - combining things of different types in one effective unified system ที่รวมเข้าด้วยกัน
integrated network - when all the different parts or nodes of the "network" are closely tied together (into a unified and integrated whole)

accomplished - skilled ซึ่งมีทักษะ
transparent - visible; public can see what is happening (no hidden or secret parts) โปร่งใส
can only be accomplished if water management is transparent.

challenge - something that needs a lot of skill, energy and determination to deal with or achieve สิ่งท้าทาย
interests - connections that you may benefit from, therefore affects your attitude to it and the way you deal with it; people who gain or lose depending on how events turn out; business interests
give up organisational interests - seek the what is good for all, rather than what is good merely for yourself or your organization

old habits

investment - taking your money and putting it into projects to make a profit or earn interest (buying stock shares, bonds, real estate)

hindrances - problems (that make progress and achieving goals difficult)

ironed out - solve problems ("iron out problems")