Yingluck ‘in clear’ over 2011 floods

The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) yesterday decided not to seek to prosecute former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra on allegations of dereliction of duty in water management which resulted in the monstrous floods in 2011.

NACC chairman Watcharapol Prasarnrajakit said the NACC believes the deluge was triggered mainly by “natural” causes. The NACC has found no major flaws as Ms Yingluck and her government had followed proper steps to cope with the disaster which in his view was “hardly predictable”.

The flooding allegations were one of 11 cases being handled by the NACC against her government. The corruption watchdog looked into the matter after her government came under criticism for failing to prevent powerful run-off from the North that raged downstream in the Chao Phraya River, leaving a trail of damage in many provinces in the Central Plains, including Bangkok.

On Oct 7, 2011 Ms Yingluck appeared on TV, admitting her government was almost at its wits’ end dealing with the inundation and telling people to brace for the worst crisis in decades. One day after her announcement, several thousand people in Ayutthaya were forced to evacuate after a large amount of water burst into vast tracts of farmland and industrial estates.

The flooding extended down to Pathum Thani, Nonthaburi and Bangkok where 36 of the capital’s 50 districts were flooded, mostly in its northern and eastern parts. When combined with flooding in the Northeast, the deluge, which lasted from late July, 2011 to January 2012, cost Thailand about 1.44 trillion baht, according to the World Bank.

Among the damages were heavily flooded farmland covering 11.2 million rai, the deaths of more than 13 million livestock and nearly 14,000 roads that needed repairs. Up to 813 people were reported dead and nearly 13 million people were left flood victims.

Despite her escape from accusations

over the flooding, Ms Yingluck still stands accused of another 10 cases, three involving her government’s 350-billion-baht water management project.

The embattled former prime minister is on the run after she failed to appear for a ruling by the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions on the rice scheme case.