Lethargic response to unpredictable weather
This year’s season of deluges, mudslides and other weatherrelated disasters arrived innocently enough with 12 boys and their assistant football coach taking what they thought was to be a relaxing stroll in a cave after training.
The whole world now knows how that afternoon stroll turned out.
What happened was the water came fast and furious, blocked the cave’s exit, necessitating a rescue operation that involved a multinational group of experts and volunteers, with a worldwide audience wishing and praying for their success.
When the last of the Wild Boars was transported to hospital, everyone heaved a sigh of relief and cheered. Little did we know that the happy ending to one disaster was just the beginning of worse to come, except this time we’d be on our own.
Since then, several provinces have been hit by flash floods that have caused landslides in several places.
A landslide in Nan’s Bo Klue district claimed eight lives. A few days before that, a dam in Laos collapsed, sending what was described as water from two million Olympics-sized swimming pools down the Xe Pian River and plunging several villages under water.
Scores of villagers died in that incident, while more than 100 are still missing and feared drowned.
The news from across the globe has been filled with weather-related disasters.
Thai officials most recently warned 59 provinces to watch out for floods from rain and discharges from dams.
Successive and concurrent severe weather-related events across the globe this year should leave no doubt that we are being hammered by the consequences of global warming.
Even climate experts, a group of forever cautious people in pronouncing any weather event that is global-warming related, have become bolder in doing so.
Disaster expert Seree Supharatid did not mince words when commenting on ThaiPBS News the other night that what we see happening is caused by global warming.
Since the great floods of 2011, Mr Seree has urged government agencies
to put more emphasis on adapting to climate change.
Doing so, however, requires short, intermediate and long-term planning and action, something the Thai bureaucracy is demonstrably not adept at.
But the bureaucrats are not entirely to blame for such deficiencies. They have been hampered by inconsistent policy directives from the executive branch, government leaders’ inability to grasp the significance of climate change and a lack of genuine interest in tackling the issue.
The ongoing political crisis, which has dragged on for more than a decade now, does not help matters. Government leaders’ attention has been drawn toward solving an immediate crisis, rather than looking at the big picture and devising strategies to deal with it.
The current military regime has continued the tradition — if that’s what it is — of ignoring issues not having to do with sustaining their hold on power and bestowing economic benefits on members of their own clique.
Climate change and nature conservation are among those issues.
Oh, Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha has spewed out nice-sounding words at climate conferences. But they were promises he apparently did not intend to keep.
Experts have identified at least three factors contributing to natural disasters: deforestation from illegal logging or land encroachment; non-compliance or lack of enforcement of city plans, and inefficient water resource management.
Just to cite one example of what this
regime has done to counteract Gen Prayut’s climate promises — his Special Economic Zones. The Eastern Economic Corridor, for instance, takes away forest land for industrial purposes and is allowed by Section 44 to ignore city plans and legal requirements to conduct an environmental impact assessment.
Thai governments are known to lack long-term vision and allow problems to ferment until they become critical before taking action. But this regime takes the cake because it has launched multiple projects at an accelerating pace without checks and balances.
It will not tolerate dissent and it does not have to be accountable for any damage arising from its own actions because it passed laws to give its members immunity.
We have just entered the rainy season and already we’ve been pummelled by storms and rains at a scale not usually seen in the past. As usual, government agencies will respond to crises as they arise.
Last year it was severe droughts. Next year, they could make a comeback. The weather cycle of drought and floods is getting ever shorter and unpredictable.
Without clear policies and genuine interest from the top, similar official responses to crises will repeat themselves.
Call me cynical or pessimistic if you like, but I honestly don’t expect any different responses either next year or the year after.
Thai governments ... allow problems to ferment until they become critical.