Anger grows in Bangkok as officials choose which neighborhoods flood – Disease threat looms across Thailand
By THOMAS FULLER, with additional reporting by Poypiti Amatatham in Bangkok.
1 November 2011 BANGKOK – In the rush to defend Bangkok from monsoon floodwaters on Tuesday, Thai officials were faced with the choice of saving men or machines. Angry residents of a northern Bangkok neighborhood are demanding that officials open a barrier that is causing flooding in their homes but keeping a nearby industrial area dry. “We are calling for justice,” said Boonsom Jitchuen, 52, a flooded shopkeeper who took part in protests Monday along what is known as the Sam Wa canal. “All we want is a place to sleep.” The controversy is typical of the wrenching decisions that have faced the Thai leadership over the past two months, a triage between bad and worse options. Engineers, politicians and soldiers have been forced to pick who is drenched and who stays dry as the destructive path of floodwaters descend from northern Thailand and heads toward the sea. Nearly 400 people have died in the flooding. Hundreds of factories producing everything from computer components to car parts have already been inundated, with far-flung consequences for the interconnected world of manufacturing. Apple computer says a global shortage of hard-disk drives is now inevitable and Toyota and Honda have cut back production at their factories in North America because of a shortage of parts from Thailand. But the Bang Chan Industrial Estate, a collection of factories producing, among other things, plastics, fertilizer, furniture and electronics, has until now stayed dry. The Bangkok governor says the sluice gates in Ms. Boonsom’s neighborhood must stay closed if the industrial park, which is on the outskirts of Bangkok, is to be saved. Sukhumbhand Paribatra, the governor, appeared to be at odds with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who ordered authorities to partially open the barrier, a Solomonic solution that local officials fear will result in both sides being flooded. Water is already flowing through a channel that was dug by angry residents during the protest on Monday. In what is a largely Muslim neighborhood, residents gathered after an announcement was made over the loudspeaker of the local mosque. “The water keeps rising!” went the announcement, according to Somkiat Kalamad, a 34-year-old resident. “Please join a gathering to call for the opening of the flood gate.” The women of the community blocked a road leading to the canal and the men hacked away at a dike, Mr. Somkiat said. On Tuesday, water continued to rush through the small channel they created. […]
Bangkok Officials Have to Choose Who Stays Dry in Floods 
By Robert Birsel, with additional reporting by Ploy Ten Kate, Pracha Hariraksapitak, and Martin Petty in Ayutthaya; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani
1 November 2011 BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thai authorities tried to stem growing anger among flood victims on Tuesday as water swamped new neighborhoods and the government began mapping out a plan costing billions of dollars to prevent a repeat disaster and secure investor confidence. The floods began in July and have devastated large parts of the central Chao Phraya river basin, killed nearly 400 people and disrupted the lives of more than two million. Inner Bangkok, protected by a network of dikes and sandbag walls, survived peak tides on the weekend and remains mostly dry. But large volumes of water are sliding across the land to the north, east and west of the city, trying to reach the sea and being diverted by the city centre’s defenses into new suburbs as they recede in others. In the northeastern city neighborhood of Sam Wa, angry residents demanded the opening of a sluice gate to let water out of their community. Residents jostled with police on Monday and Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra ordered that the gate be opened by a meter (three feet). But city authorities warned that the flow through the gate could move via a major canal into large parts of the city which are now dry. “We are opposed to it but the government has ordered the BMA to open the gate, so more water will come,” said Bangkok Metropolitan Authority (BMA) spokesman Jate Sopitpongstorn. “It could reach the Bang Chan industrial estate. We have to see the consequences,” he told Reuters, adding that residents of the area had been told to be on alert. […] To the north of Bangkok, Pathum Thani and Ayutthaya provinces have been largely inundated for weeks, along with seven industrial estates that have sprung up over the last two decades on what used to be the central plain’s rice fields. […] Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Kittirat Na Ranong said the government would need to borrow “hundreds of billions of baht” to recover and prevent a repeat of disaster during the annual rainy season. “Any investor, ambassador, I talk to, they never ask how high the floodwaters are but what will Thailand actually do to prevent this from happening again,” Kittirat told reporters. […] The floods submerged four million acres (1.6 million ha), an area roughly the size of Kuwait, and destroyed 25 percent of the main rice crop in the world’s largest rice exporter. The deluge was caused in part by unusually heavy monsoon rain but the weather has been mostly clear for the past week. The BMA said 2,245 mm (more than seven feet) of rain had fallen this year to the end of October, 40.8 percent above average. ($1=30.75 baht)
By Holly Yan, CNN
31 October 2011 Worries about high tides overwhelming parts of Thailand in recent days have morphed into fears about water- and insect-borne diseases in the flood-ravaged country. Bangkok’s central business district has avoided major flooding so far, but outlying areas are chest- or waist-deep in water. “The water in those parts is a filthy black color containing sewage, garbage and dead animals with a nasty smell. Mosquitoes are also breeding rapidly,” said Igor Prahin of Bangkok. More than 370 people have died since the flooding began after heavy monsoon rains. U.S. Ambassador to Thailand Kristie A. Kenney said Monday that “the worst may be over for central Bangkok,” but about 2 million people are still affected by the flooding. The United States has pledged a total of $1.1 million in aid. Charities working in the country have warned of diseases such as diarrhea, dengue fever and malaria in the coming days and weeks. “There are places on the outskirts of Bangkok and in other parts of the country which have been flooded for nearly two weeks,” said Matthew Cochrane of the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent. “The country’s prime minister has said that the city has ‘dodged a bullet’ — the economic impact of central Bangkok being flooded would have been huge, and thankfully that did not happen — but a huge part of the country is still under water,” Cochrane said. “Outside the city it is certainly a humanitarian crisis, because there are people who have been cut off for weeks without any aid, supplies or food.” […]
Threat of disease from historic flooding looms in Thailand 
AYUTTHAYA, Thailand (AP) – A group of elephants is facing a second month cut off by floods in this submerged Thai city, stranded on a small concrete island at an animal shelter just a few yards (meters) wide. The group of 17 includes seven pachyderms under 4 years old who were too small to flee when the rest of their nearly 90-strong herd escaped approaching floodwaters that engulfed this historic city north of Bangkok more than a month ago. “The big elephants are able to wade through the water themselves,” 24-year-old keeper Pat Parinnam told The Associated Press on Monday. “But the babies are too small for the mothers to lead them out and the water’s too high, meaning the babies could drown.” So the decision was taken to leave them behind in the care of their mothers at the Ayutthaya Elephant Palace and Royal Kraal, which provides shelter and employment for domesticated Thai elephants. Today, they stand in the blazing sunshine, waiting for the surrounding water to recede while eagerly devouring enormous quantities of sugar cane and pineapples brought daily by boat. The adults among them — including two males and a pregnant female — can frolic in the water, stretch their limbs and cool down. But the little ones cannot because they would drown if they stepped into the 6-foot-deep (2-meter-deep) water. “Yes the elephants are upset. I’m upset too,” Parinnam said. “We’re the same, humans and elephants.” The rest of the herd, about 70 elephants, simply walked or swam to safety last month when the floodwaters encroached on their home. They are now in a public park on higher ground in Ayutthaya.
And to think: there are STILL Black Swan events to come!