Hard lessons from Podul ..

The serious damage to vast areas of the North and Northeast from Tropical Storm Podul is a testament to the country’s water management failure.

After months of severe drought, 24 provinces were submerged overnight — with Khon Kaen’s Ban Phai district one of the hardest-hit areas, with flood waters reaching as high three metres deep. One person died, and many roads were impassable. Non Sawang and Non Sa-ard communities in tambon Nai Muang, Ban Phai district, were particularly hard hit, with over 1,000 homes inundated.

Photos of residents trapped on their roofs as rescue workers struggled to reach them were widely shared on both social and mainstream media outlets. Those who managed to escape the floods in time clogged local roads and public facilities as they waited for help from local authorities.

In Nan and several other northern provinces, heavy downpours caused runoff-induced landslides in mountainous areas. In Ban Huay Mon, tambon Santa in Na Noi district, an avalanche of rain-soaked mud swept away and destroyed 14 houses.

Twenty-tree highways were flooded as the storm battered the country. Only a few were usable immediately after the storm passed, and the damage to road infrastructure will require a lot of money to repair and a great deal of time to complete.

There were reports that the Royal Irrigation Department deployed 15 large water pumps and eight water-propelling machines to divert water from the overflowing reservoir in Kalasin and breached dykes in Roi Et as well as Ubon Ratchathani.

The inundation dealt a heavy blow to local farmers, who had struggled with the recent drought and were waiting for the harvest season. The rain and floods destroyed much of their crops, which included rice, corn, cassava, and sugarcane. This, will undoubtedly have an effect on the country’s food supplies.

Economist Anusorn Thamjai of Rangsit University said that although farmers were especially hit hard by the storm, other groups will also be indirectly affected by the rising cost of food, as a large amount of staples were damaged by the storm.

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And now, people in the North and the Northeast are holding their breath as another storm approaches.

Mr Anusorn pointed out that the tumult over the past few days showed the state has no comprehensive policy to deal with extreme weather phenomena as a result of climate change.

The academic is right. Since Podul hit the country on Thursday, it appeared rescue workers, while toiling extremely hard, did not carry out relief operations proactively.

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They didn’t seem prepared despite prior warnings about the storm from the Meteorological Department.

Policy makers and the government have to be more serious about climate issues, placing priorities and planning short-, medium- and long-term measures to better handle extreme weather.

The state is obliged to place priority and invest more in projects and plans that will enable the country to better cope with the changing climate.