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Dam water to be released from May
The Nation
BANGKOK: -- Among major policies issued yesterday after yestesday's meeting of a central government committee is that water is drained from all major dams as earlier as late May - to prevent the dams' over-capacity during the peak of rainwater volume which resulted in panic releases of water and subsequently massive flooding in the plains south of the dams, said PM's Office Minister Nivatthamrong Boonsongpaisal, a panel member.
As part of the government’s preparation for water and flood management this year, a tour to survey major waterways across the country will be conducted on February 13-17, Interior and Deputy Prime Minister Yongyuth Vichaidith said yesterday.
The Tour of Happiness will be conducted in all key river basins covering provinces and areas which are origins and ends of rivers and waterways, which would inspect restoration plans in place, measures implemented under a central government committee and flood and evacuation plans in provinces involved in addition to a contingency plan in Lop Buri, Yongyuth added.
The committee, the Strategic Committee for Water Resources Management (SCWRM), estimated that the water situation would be better than last year, if the rainwater volume was the same or not much more than last year. The SCWRM has worked with the Royal Irrigation Department to directly deal with dam operators to make sure the release of water would be done on a daily basis starting from late May - before the wet season’s peak in June or July.
During the Tour, business people and members of the industrial sector would be invited to take part in sessions scheduled in Ayutthaya, home to several industrial estates which were heavily inundated last year. The Tour comprises two sectors - tours led by the prime minister and inspection visits made by relevant agencies, before information achieved would be jointly used and assessed for overal analyses afterwards, Nivatthamrong said.
Asked about comments by flood expert Pramote Maiklad that the government was full of projects and still lacking implemenations, Yongyuth said what would be learned during the Tour of Happiness would be materialsed and put into action.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, speaking during a meeting yesterday with Yongyuth present, had instructed all relevant government agencies and ministers involved in flood and water management to submit their progress reports and possible suggestions to her by February 8.
She would give details about the progress and the Tour in her radio address on February 11, before commencing the trek two days later.
Areas in four eastern Bangkok will not be expropriated and used as floodways, as feared by the public and speculated by the media, because homes were built before a law became effective, said MR Premsiri Kasemsant, director Department of City Planning
Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA).
What the DCP could do now was to control construction of buildings or slums by canals or rivers into the water while dealing with existing structures in violation of law. A revised city planning policy will instead turn non-residential areas in the four districts - Khlong Sam Wa, Nong Chok, Min Buri and Lat Krabang - into suburban parks, said deputy director Amornrat Krityanwat.
The BMA has begun dredging underground drains and walkway sewerage to cope with rainwater volume in preparation for flood prevention this year. Prisoners are now hired to do the job on 277 road in Bangkok, completing the work in 13 roads totalling in 41,096 metres of the drains, or 4.26 per cent of a total distance covering metres.
Speaking during a inspection of the work yesterday, Bangkok governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra said the work must be done by May, jointly by city workers doing the job in soi while the prisoners were in charge of the dredging on main Bangkok roads. He said the budget for the dredging was the BMA’s and welcomed funding from the government.
He said negotiations with owners of homes built into canals and rivers would be soon begin. He said they numbered in several thousands after illegally building their homes into the water for decades.
The Interior Ministry called on the public to take easy on the Bt5,000 government pay for each owner of flooded home, saying that they money would be ready and given to all of those registered and deemed qualified.
Deputy permanent secretary Pracha Terat said the pay was expected to be all handed out in the next 45 days, and pleaded with the public for understanding for the time-consuming process. He said those who had not submitted the request to do so, and the ministry welcomed feedbacks and queries through its 1567 call centre service.
-- The Nation 2012-02-04
