Some relatively good news at last for Sa and I in Chiang Rai. The heavy rains over the past two days have stopped for now and we have some blue sky which will help me to clear up our outdoor garage area. The forecast is for thunderstorms for the next five days. These tend to be around an hour, so no major worries.
However, Chiang Mai remains badly affected. To recap, it is the largest city in the north of Thailand. As predicted, the flooding is now affecting Chao Phraya River and affects 11 central provinces. It is this river that caused major flooding of Bangkok in 2011. I thought it was more recent than that but in 2011 I was serving in Saudi Arabia as the Royal Navy’s Marine Engineering Staff Officer for the Naval Project that is part of the multi-billion Saudi British Defence Cooperation Programme, so I didn’t experience the floods personally. As a staff officer I was widely known to have a sharp memory but that is based mainly on personal experiences (some of which I insert here out of general interest:
“The UK’s Ministry of Defence Saudi Armed Forces Programme, Saudi British Defence Cooperation Programme was previously known as Al Yamamah - “The Dove of Peace” and the envy of the French as it made the UK the second largest defence exporter. Margaret Thatcher was transmogrified to become an honorary man as she walked down the stairs from her aircraft in Riyadh and along a red carpet to meet the Custodian of the Two Holiest Mosques, King Fahd. They shook hands. You won’t see that too often. It resulted in billions of barrels of oil and many Tornado fighter jets going the other way. Money was not formally exchanged.” [An extract from my yet to be published book, Fleet Engineer]
The Thai PM has stated that there will be no repeat of the 2011 flooding. I hope the PM was right. She said that there would be no storms but two weeks later we were hit with Storm Yagi and then Storm Soulik both of which caused extensive and catastrophic damage in the north and north east regions.
I have learned recently that there is a system of monitoring floods and issuing warnings. However, there are many, too many, authorities involved at national, provincial and local levels. These include Flood, Wildfire and Drought Service, Irrigation Department, Ministry of Agriculture, Provincial Authority, and the Police.
Moreover, when warnings are issued to the public it seems many don’t have access to the warnings besides which, and far more importantly, there is widespread shortage of flood protection equipment at the local level, which is why I have developed my own Flood Contingency Plan and Flood Procedural Plan. I have just found this website which is helpful https://disaster.gistda.or.th/. This one, however, is not https://www.thaiwater.net/floodforecast. The latter is more an academic tool than a practical one. I wonder if there is an equivalent to the Gistda in the UK?
Yesterday I ordered my first batch of flood bags. They are self-activating and self-absorbing. They take up little space in storage, work for up to 3 months and can be re-used after drying out. I will test the sample batch for their effectiveness before making a full order. Sa is sensitive about this as I mentioned before. She was under a great deal of stress at the time and probably thought that I was being critical of her government and authorities; I was not. Thais are very loyal and highly patriotic. They don’t take kindly to criticism of any Thai person or authority by foreigners. She is a fairly devout Buddhist and doesn’t like spending or wasting money but, Baldrick, I have a cunning plan.
My membership of the Institute of Marine Engineering Science and Technology and the Engineering Council is due renewal on 1 October. I’m fast approaching retirement age so will cancel my subscription fees to be a chartered engineer and spend the money instead on the flood protection that we need. Thus, I can present this to Sa as being a cost neutral investment in looking after our house. Perhaps I will need to buy her some gold jewellery or a new pair of nice shoes from Charles & Keith if she remains grumpy!!
I’ll keep you up to date with any significant changes in due course. Mark Smith, your FSB Correspondent in Thailand.