Flash floods hit northern provinces of Thailand
Aug 29, 2010 10:59am
(NECN/MCOT) - Many areas of the northern region were heavily inundated on Sunday due to flash floods.
Chiang Mai, Uttaradit, Nan, and Phichit were among the northern provinces suffering from severe flooding, which forced evacuation of local residents in the affected areas.
Local authorities closed an inner city area of Chiang Mai to traffic due to severe flooding, which led to congestion in surrounding areas.
Floodwater was higher than 1 metre in some areas, forcing local residents to move to higher ground.
In Uttaradit, some residential and agricultural areas were under floodwater as high as 3 meters. More than 1,000 households had to be evacuated.
Many local state agencies saw their documents and equipment damaged by flash flood.
Similar problems were also reported in Nan and Phichit. Flash floods cut off roads linking some northern provinces, and floodwater was too high on rural roads for small vehicles.
Local authorities sent boats to affected villages to distribute relief supplies.
Flash floods hit northern provinces of Thailand
Flash floods force mass evacuations
ALMOST 40,000 HIT BY FIVE DAYS OF RAIN
- Published: 29/08/2010 at 04:25 AM
- Newspaper section: News
Over 36,000 people in 220 villages have been hit by floods triggered by heavy rainfall over the past five days, says the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department.
TREE SHELTER: Pak Uttama climbs up a tamarind tree to escape floods which hit Ban Pha Mu in Rong Kwang district, Phrae. PHOTO: TAWEESAK SUKASEM
The four hardest-hit provinces are Mae Hong Son, Chiang Rai, Uttaradit, and Lamphun, the department said in its daily report yesterday.
Despite the heavy rains, the average water storage level at the country's major dams was at 53% capacity, which is lower than last year's mark, the department said.
The flooding situation had worsened in many provinces due to continuous heavy rains from Friday night until yesterday morning.
The Meteorological Department has also warned about an intense trough of low pressure in the North and Northeast that could result in heavy rains and flooding in certain areas.
DINNER TIME: A man shows a fish he has caught in Muang district, Mukdahan. PHOTO: WALLAPA TRIPRAPAKORN
In the North, a large number of people living in Mae Hong Son's Muang district were forced to evacuate early yesterday morning due to flash floods following overnight heavy rains in the province.
In Uttaradit, the provincial disaster prevention and mitigation office was preparing for possible flash floods in seven districts that have been inundated frequently during the rainy season.
Lampang governor Supphakij Boonyaritthiphong said the province had declared eight of its 13 districts disaster zones due to the damage wrought by flooding.
Rescue workers and volunteers have been deployed to affected areas to help villagers evacuate and provide them with food, drinking water, and shelter.
NO ESCAPE: Wannaporn Prompaibul moves her belongings to a safe place in the house after water level rises in Phachi district in Ayutthaya. PHOTO: SUNTHON PONGPAO
About 300 families in Ayutthaya's Phachi district, which is on one of the highest upland plains in the central province, were affected by flooding that began late Friday night and continued for several hours.
Flood waters were between 70 centimetres and one-metre deep in the lowest part of the district.
Witthaya Phiewphongphan, the provincial governor, said that aside from residential areas in Phachi, more than 8,000 rai of farmland in an additional three districts in the province had also been flooded.
In nearby Saraburi, some parts of Phahon Yothin Road in Muang and Nong Khae districts were inundated.
PARALYSED: A road in Ubon Ratchathani is flooded in nearly a metre of water. Traffic in the northeastern province ground to a halt yesterday due to rain. PHOTO: TAWEESAK BUTCHAN
Water levels there were between 50cm and 70cm deep.
Cars could still traverse the road to the North and Northeast, but they were slowed by the flood waters which did not subside as the rain continued.
In the Northeast, sustained heavy rains have also caused flooding in Mukdahan's Muang district. Flood waters rose to about 30cm to 80cm deep. It began to rain on Friday with the downpour only tapering off about 3pm yesterday.
Bangkok Post : Flash floods force mass evacuations
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/193455/flash-floods-force-mass-evacuations
On the bright side, this storm has brought Sirikit Dam up to where it was this time last year. Still way below where it should be — above the yellow line — but certainly better than it was a month ago!
Several dead in Vietnam storm
August 25, 2010
A tropical storm has struck Vietnam, killing four people and leaving another ten people missing.
Tropical storm Mindulle hit north-central Vietnam on Tuesday, also injuring a further 20 people and causing tens of thousands of people to be evacuated from vulnerable costal villages, the national floods and storms control committee said.
The missing people are members of a fishing boat crew that disappeared when searching for a safe haven, a disaster official in central Danang City said on Wednesday.
Rescue workers are searching for the crew.
Evacuation
An estimated 74,000 people residing in high-risk coastal areas were evacuated before the storm hit, Nguyen Huu Nhung of Nghe An, a disaster official in Vinh, the Nghe province capital, said.
Officials in Ha Tinh province, south of Nghe An, said more than 14,000 people had been evacuated from coastal villages.
In total 4,000 homes have been damaged and 62,000 hectares of rice fields had been flooded, according to the government.
Mindulle blew roofs from buildings, and knocked down trees in Vinh.
The storm caused the damage after strengthening over the South China Sea, reaching winds of 117km per hour.
Meteorologists said Mindulle would dissipate later on Wednesday, and it has been downgraded to a low depression.
The third tropical storm of the year made landfall Tuesday afternoon in Nghe An and Thanh Hoa provinces.
Several dead in Vietnam storm - Asia-Pacific - Al Jazeera English
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/08/201082552016705277.html
Chiang Mai
August 3, 2010 - 10:00 PM
Once again, the rains here have proven themselves either feast or famine. We were thinking of heading home to Pah Leurat tomorrow but still have a few unfinished chores here. That's just as well since the bulletins below report that in Phrae this evening a section of the highway from here to Uttaradit was washed out.
Hopefully they'll have a temporary bridge in place by Thursday or we'll be be forced to take the long way home — 101-102 through Si Satchanalai instead of the newer and more direct Route 11 through Den Chai.
Note that this storm is no spinoff from any typhoons in the South China Sea. Instead it's being driven, as it should, from the Andaman Sea by this year's long overdue SW monsoon. Also encouraging that at least some of this rain is ending up in "our" Sirikit Dam.
ฝนตกหนัก - สายเด่นชัย-อุตรดิตถ์ขาด
น้ำป่าถล่มแพร่ท่วมมิดที่พักคนงานสร้างถนน
ภูมิภาค 3 ส.ค.- ศูนย์อุตุฯ เตือนหลายพื้นที่ภาคเหนือยังมีฝนตกหนัก ย้ำระวังน้ำท่วมฉับพลัน ล่าสุด จ.แพร่ น้ำป่าทะลักตัดขาดถนนที่กำลังก่อสร้าง ที่พักคนงานสร้างจมมิด ขณะที่เชียงใหม่-อุตรดิตถ์ย้ำพื้นที่เสี่ยงรับมือ
ผู้สื่อข่าวรายงานน้ำป่าหลากท่วมฉับพลันเช้ามืดวันนี้ (3 ส.ค.) ในพื้นที่ จ.แพร่ หลังจากฝนตกมาตลอดทั้งคืน โดยเฉพาะบ้านน้ำแรม หมู่ 4 ต.ห้วยไร่ อ.เด่นชัย อยู่ระหว่างก่อสร้างถนนสี่เลนสายเด่นชัย-อุตรดิตถ์ หลักกิโลเมตรที่ 144-145 ถูกน้ำป่าพัดขาด รถยนต์ไม่สามารถผ่านได้และจอดติดยาวหลายกิโลเมตร ซึ่งนายนพพร ศักดาพร ผู้จัดการบริษัทรับเหมาก่อสร้าง ให้คนงานนำแผ่นเหล็กขนาดใหญ่ทำเป็นสะพานทางเบี่ยงชั่วคราว
พร้อมกันนี้ เจ้าหน้าที่ของกรมทางหลวงประกาศให้ผู้ใช้เส้นทางเด่นชัย-อุตรดิตถ์ เลี่ยงไปใช้เส้นทางอื่นแทน คือ สายศรีสัชนาลัย-เด่นชัย ขณะที่การทำสะพานทางเบี่ยงเจออุปสรรคและถูกน้ำพัดตลอดเวลา ท่ามกลางฝนตกต่อเนื่อง จึงไม่สามารถใช้งานได้ นอกจากนี้ น้ำป่ายังทะลักท่วมตู้คอนเทนเนอร์ทำเป็นที่พักคนงานอาศัยอยู่ร่วม 30 คน ต้องรีบหนีน้ำท่วมสูงมิดตู้คอนเทนเนอร์ ส่งผลให้ข้าวของเสียหาย ขณะที่บ้านเรือนราษฎรและรีสอร์ทถูกน้ำท่วมเช่นกัน ชาวบ้านและนักท่องเที่ยวรีบขนย้ายข้าวของออกจากที่พัก
ล่าสุดนายสมชัย หทยะตันติ ผู้ว่าราชการจังหวัดแพร่ ร่วมกับนายวีระศักดิ์ ศิริสิทธิ์ นายอำเภอเด่นชัย นายสมฤทธิ์ วิชัยทา หน.ป้องกันและบรรเทาสาธารณภัยจังหวัดแพร่ เร่งลงพื้นที่ติดตามสถานการณ์ เพื่อให้การช่วยเหลือผู้ประสบภัยเบื้องต้น และประกาศเตือนประชาชนในพื้นที่ริมฝั่งระวังน้ำล้นตลิ่ง
ด้านนายสุรชัย ธัชกวิน ป้องกันและบรรเทาสาธารณภัยจังหวัดอุตรดิตถ์ กล่าวว่า ในพื้นที่ยังมีฝนตกต่อเนื่องถึงร้อยละ 80 และได้ประกาศให้ศูนย์เตือนภัยพิบัติระดับอำเภอ โดยเฉพาะ 197 หมู่บ้าน ของ อ.ลับแล อ.เมือง และ อ.ท่าปลา ซึ่งเป็นพื้นที่เสี่ยงภัยสีแดงตามที่ลาดเชิงเขาใกล้ทางน้ำไหลจากภูเขาสูง เฝ้าระวังน้ำป่าไหลหลาก ดินโคลนถล่ม ตั้งแต่วันนี้ถึงวันที่ 5 สิงหาคม ล่าสุดมีรายงานว่าที่ตำบลแม่พูล อำเภอลับแล ฝนตกหนักและวัดปริมาณน้ำฝนได้ 150 มิลิเมตร ซึ่งเป็นปริมาณที่มาก หากสถานการณ์ยังเป็นเช่นนี้ไปอีก 1-2 วัน จำเป็นต้องอพยพประชาชน เนื่องจากพื้นที่ดังกล่าวเคยเกิดดินโคลนถล่มมาแล้วเมื่อปี 2549 พร้อมย้ำมิสเตอร์เตือนภัยประจำตำบลดูแลพื้นที่อย่างใกล้ชิด หากฝนตกหนักมากกว่า 100 มิลลิเมตร และสังเกตสีน้ำลำห้วย หากเป็นสีแดงขุ่นหรือมีดินโคลนผสมให้รีบแจ้งประชาชนพื้นที่เสี่ยงภัยทันที เพื่อเตรียมตัวย้ายไปอยู่ในจุดปลอดภัย
ศูนย์อุตุนิยมวิทยาภาคเหนือออกประกาศ ฉบับที่ 1 (7/2553) ว่า ร่องมรสุมพาดผ่านประเทศไทยตอนบน ประกอบกับมีหย่อมความกดอากาศต่ำปกคลุมภาคภาคเหนือและภาคตะวันออกเฉียงเหนือ รวมทั้งมรสุมตะวันตกเฉียงใต้ที่พัดปกคลุมทะเลอันดามัน ประเทศไทย และอ่าวไทยมีกำลังแรง ลักษณะเช่นนี้ทำให้ภาคเหนือทุกจังหวัด ยังคงมีฝนตกชุกหนาแน่นและมีฝนตกหนักบางแห่ง ขอให้ประชาชนบริเวณที่ลาดเชิงเขาใกล้ทางน้ำไหลผ่านระวังน้ำท่วมฉับพลันและน้ำป่าไหลหลากช่วงวันที่ 3-5 สิงหาคมนี้ สำหรับจังหวัดเชียงใหม่ นายประจญ ปรัชญ์สกุล ป้องกันและบรรเทาสาธารณภัยจังหวัด ได้รับแจ้งฝนตกหนักหลายอำเภอ แต่ยังไม่ส่งผลกระทบ และวันที่ 11 ส.ค.นี้ จังหวัดกำหนดซ้อมแผนรับมือน้ำท่วมดินถล่มในพื้นที่บ้านแม่งอน อ.ฝาง.-สำนักข่าวไทย
ที่มา : สำนักข่าวไทย
น้ำป่าถล่มแพร่ท่วมมิดที่พักคนงานสร้างถนน - MSN ข่าว
http://news.impaqmsn.com/articles.aspx?id=349323&ch=lc1
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เกิดฝนตกหนักส่งผลให้น้ำป่าไหลหลากท่วมถนนสายแพร่-อุตรดิตถ์ซึ่
เกิดฝนตกหนักส่งผลให้น้ำป่าไหลหลากท่วมถนนสายแพร่-อุตรดิตถ์ ขณะกำลังขยายช่องทางจราจรทำให้รถไม่สามารถสัญจร ไปมาได้ ผู้รับเหมาเร่งเสริมคอสะพานที่สร้างยังไม่เสร็จให้รถวิ่งผ่านไปได้ก่อน นายรังสรรค์ ขำแจง ประชาสัมพันธ์จังหวัดแพร่กล่าวว่า หลังจากที่ฝนตกลงมาตลอดทั้งคืนของวันที่ 2 สิงหาคม 2553 ในพื้นที่จังหวัดแพร่ ส่งผลให้เช้าวันนี้(3ส.ค.53)เกิดน้ำป่าจากลำห้วยแม่พวก ตำบลห้วยไร่ อำเภอเด่นชัย จังหวัดแพร่ ไหลทะลักเข้าท่วมบ้านเรือนในเขตตำบลห้วยไร่ โดยเฉพาะบ้านน้ำแรม หมู่ที่ 4 และถนนสายแพร่-อุตรดิตถ์ หลักกิโลเมตรที่ 144-145 ซึ่งอยู่ในช่วงของการก่อสร้างขยายช่องทางจราจรจาก 2 ช่องทางเป็น 4 ช่องทาง โดยทางเบี่ยงได้ถูกน้ำพัดจนขาด รถไม่สามารถสัญจรไปมาได้ ทางเจ้าหน้าที่และผู้รับเหมา ซึ่งนายนพพร ศักดาพร ผู้จัดการบริษัทศักดาพรก่อสร้าง ได้เร่งทำการซ่อมแซมและนำแผ่นเหล็กขนาดใหญ่ไปปูสะพานที่กำลังก่อสร้าง เพื่อให้รถสามารถข้ามได้ แต่ก็มีอุปสรรคคือฝนที่ตกลงมาตลอด ด้านนายสมชัย หทยะตันติ ผู้ว่าราชการจังหวัดแพร่ได้ให้ผู้เกี่ยวข้องเข้าไปดูแลและช่วยเหลือประชาชน ที่ประสบภัยในพื้นที่ตำบลห้วยไร่ในเบื้องต้นแล้ว พร้อมกำชับให้ประชาชนระมัดระวังน้ำป่าและดินโคลนถล่มเนื่องจากมีฝนตกลงมา อย่างต่อเนื่อง ด้านของทางหลวงได้ประกาศให้ผู้ใช้รถสายเด่นชัย – อุตรดิตถ์ โดยเฉพาะรถบรรทุกหนักให้หันไปใช้เส้นทางสายเด่นชัย-ศรีสัชนาลัย แทนไปก่อน เนื่องจากเส้นทางสายเด่นชัย-อุตรดิตถ์ยังไม่ปลอดภัยเนื่องจากอยู่ระหว่างการ ก่อสร้างขยายช่องทางจราจร
โดย : natty วันที่ 03 สิงหาคม 2553 เวลา 12:52:35 น.
แพร่ จังหวัดแพร่ ที่พักแพร่ สถานที่ท่องเที่ยวแพร่ ข่าวรอบเมืองแพร่ย้อนหลัง
http://www.phrae.tv/main1/modules.php?name=activeshow_mod&file=article&asid=721
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วันอังคารที่ 3 สิงหาคม พ.ศ.2553
น้ำป่าทะลักแพร่ ถนนขาด รถติดยาวเป็นกิโล
น้ำป่าถล่มแพร่ ฝนตกทั้งคืน ทำให้ถนนสายเด่นชัย-อุตรดิตถ์ หลักกิโลเมตรที่ 144-145 ถูกตัดขาด รถติดยาวเป็นกิโลเมตร ขณะ คนงานในบ้านพักสร้างทางหนีน้ำอลหม่าน น้ำท่วมบ้านพักมิดหลังคา...
หลังจากที่ฝนได้ตกลงมาตลอดทั้งคืนในพื้นที่จังหวัดแพร่ ก็ส่งผลให้เมื่อเช้าวันนี้ 05-00 น. วันที่ 3 สิงหาคม 2553 ได้เกิดน้ำป่าจากห้วยแม่พวก ตำบลห้วยไร่ อำเภอเด่นชัย ไหลทะลักเข้าท่วมบ้านเรือนในเขตตำบลห้วยไร่ โดยเฉพาะที่บ้านน้ำแรม หมู่ที่ 4 ตำบลห้วยไร่ในขณะที่ ถนนสายเด่นชัย-อุตรดิตถ์ หลักกิโลเมตรที่ 144-145 ในช่วงมีการสร้างถนนสี่เลนที่บ้านน้ำแรม ถูกน้ำป่าพัดตัดขาด รถไม่สามารถผ่านไปได้ จึงทำให้รถติดกันยาวหลายกิโลเมตร เนื่องจากช่วงนั้น มีการสร้างสะพาน ขณะนี้ทางเจ้าหน้าที่และผู้รับเหมาสร้างทาง โดยนายนพพร ศักดาพร ผู้จัดการ บริษัทศักดาพร ก่อสร้าง ได้เร่งซ่อมและนำแผ่นเหล็กขนาดใหญ่ไปปูสะพานที่กำลังสร้างเนื่องจากสะพานทางเบี่ยงไม่สามารถใช้การได้ แต่ก็ทำด้วยความยากลำบาก เนื่องจากฝนได้ตกตลอดเวลา
นายนพพร เผยว่า ตั้งแต่เวลา 04.00 น. ได้มีน้ำป่าจากบนเขาไหลลงมาในขณะนั้นคนงานได้รายงานว่า น้ำป่าไปทะลักอย่างแรง คนงานที่พักในแคมป์ร่วม 30 คน ต้องพากันวิ่งหนีน้ำกันขึ้นที่สูง และ บ้านพักที่นำเอาตู้คอนเทนเนอร์ มาทำ ถูกน้ำท่วมจนมิด ข้าวของเสียหายไปมากเช่นกัน ในขณะที่ฝนตกไม่หยุดนั้น น้ำป่าที่ไหลทะลักลงมาก็เริ่มไหลเข้าท่วมบ้านเรือนในเขตตำบลห้วยไร่บางส่วนแล้ว และที่รีสอร์ท น้ำแรมการ์เด้น ก็ถูกน้ำป่าไหลทะลักเข้าท่วม นักท่องเที่ยวที่พักอาศัยอยู่ต้องเร่งย้ายออกมาจากห้องพัก และชาวบ้าน ในเขตบ้านน้ำแรม ต่างก็พากันขนข้าวของขึ้นที่สูงแล้ว
นายสมชัย หทยะตันติ ผู้ว่าราชการจังหวัดแพร่ ร่วมกับนายวีระศักดิ์ ศิริสิทธิ์ นายอำเภอเด่นชัย นายสมฤทธิ์ วิชัยทา หน.ป้องกันและบรรเทาสาธารณภัยจังหวัดแพร่ได้เร่งออกไปสำรวจให้การช่วยเหลือเบื้องต้นแล้ว และได้ออกประกาศเตือนประชาชนที่อาศัยอยู่ตามที่สูงและมีบ้านเรือนติดกับลำห้วยต่างๆให้ระมัดระวัง น้ำป่าและดินถล่มด้วย เนื่องจาก ฝนตกตลอดเวลาคาดว่าจะเกิดน้ำท่วมฉับพลันได้ สาเหตุที่น้ำป่าไหลเข้าท่วมโดยเฉพาะในเขตตำบลห้วยไร่นั้น แทบทุกปี เนื่องจากป่าไม้ในพื้นที่นั้นถูกทำลายไปมาก การตัดไม้ทำลายป่า จนป่าเหี้ยนเตียน แม้เจ้าหน้าที่จะจับกุมไว้เว้นแต่ละเดือน ก็ยังลักลอบตัดกันมากอยู่ ดังนั้นจึงขอให้พี่น้องประชาชนในพื้นที่ได้สอดส่องดูแลร่วมกัน เพราะพอเกิดเหตุแบบนี้ขึ้นคนที่ได้รับความเดือดร้อนคือประชาชนในชุมชนนั่นเอง พวกนายทุนพวกลักลอบตัดไม้ทำลายป่าเขาไม่ได้มาเดือดร้อนกับเราด้วย ดังนั้นขอให้ช่วยกันดูแลป่าให้ดี
อย่างไรก็ดี ขณะนี้ กรมทางหลวงได้ประกาศให้ผู้ที่ใช้รถใช้ถนนในสาย เด่นชัย-อุตรดิตถ์ โดยเฉพาะรถบรรทุกหนัก ให้ไปใช้เส้นทางสายศรีสัชนาลัย-เด่นชัย แทน เนื่องจากรถที่วิ่งสายเดิมจะล่าช้า เพราะใช้ทางที่ซ่อมทางเดียว และไม่สามารถวิ่งเร็วได้ ส่วนทางเบี่ยงขณะนี้ถูกน้ำพัดเสียหายใช้การไม่ได้ อีกทั้งสะพานก็ยังสร้างไม่เสร็จเกรงว่าจะเกิดอันตรายได้
ในขณะที่ขณะนี้น้ำป่าได้เริ่มไหลเข้าท่วมบ้านเรือนในหมู่ที่ 4 และที่ รีสอร์ท น้ำแรมกาเด้น ก็เกิดน้ำป่าไหลเข้าท่วม นักท่องเที่ยวที่พักอาศัยอยู่ต้องพากันหนีออกจากห้องพัก และขณะนี้ในเขตอำเภอเมืองแพร่ ที่บ้านร่องฟอง ตำบลร่องฟอง ก็เกิดน้ำป่าไหลเข้าท่วมบ้างแล้ว ชาวบ้านบางส่วนก็เร่งขนย้ายสิ่งของขึ้นที่สูงกันแล้ว
น้ำป่าทะลักแพร่ ถนนขาด รถติดยาวเป็นกิโล - ข่าวไทยรัฐออนไลน์
Pah Leurat
July 22, 2010
Temps are now mercifully down from previous highs. It was only 78º yesterday morning and we picked up some rain from typhoon Conson in the South China Sea. Not enough to make much difference, but every little bit helps when things are so terribly dry.
You can even see an upward blip in the red line on the graph below indicating the current water levels in Sirikit Dam, 15 miles upstream from here. With a surface area of 100 square miles and a capacity of over 8-million acre feet, Sirikit is Thailand's second largest reservoir.
So that little blip is better than nothing, but even so the lake remains below 30% capacity and we still have less than 30% of the inflow for July 2009 — which was already a dry year.
RED LINE: Water levels in 2010 (Buddhist year 2553)
GREEN LINE: Water levels in 2009 (Buddhist year 2552)
BLUE SHADING: Reserves available in 2010
MAUVE SHADING: Reserves available in 2009
Pah Leurat
July 23, 2010
We got a brief sprinkle last night and some more rain today, but Chanthu's track yesterday was considerably farther NE of us than Conson's was last week.
See below and/or:
Typhoon 201002 (CONSON) - Google Map
http://agora.ex.nii.ac.jp/digital-typhoon/summary/wnp/g/201002.html.en
Typhoon 201003 (CHANTHU) - Google Map
http://agora.ex.nii.ac.jp/digital-typhoon/summary/wnp/g/201003.html.en
During a normal June-October rainy season, the SW monsoon (from the Arabic mawsim meaning season) brings us moisture from the Indian Ocean. Here in Uttaradit we typically receive between 55 and 65 inches per year, and most of that in July through September.
This year the SW monsoon is very weak, or at least very late, so we especially welcome any overflows from typhoons in the South China Sea. While the typhoons are not normally our main source of water, in any given year they typically bring some additional rains, which are usually accompanied by a few cool, grey days, and occasionally by torrential downpours. Thunder and lightning frequently accompany the SW monsoons, but only rarely these low pressure systems from the South China Sea.
In 1995 a series of back to back typhoons caused Sirikit Dam to overflow for the first time since it was completed in 1967. That's a dramatic event for any dam and particularly for this one which, even at 373 feet high, is built entirely of earth and rock with no concrete other than the plumbing for the hydroelectric generators.
The dam survived that event unscathed, but the river surged nearly 10 meters above its normal highest levels. Cities downstream were severely flooded and several villages were completely washed away. Fortunately for us, Pah Leurat is on a river bank about a meter above the highest flood level — which probably explains why it has stood right here for at least the last 500 years.
* According to the agora site, in the South China Sea there are an average of 7.3 typhoons per year. Conson and Chanthu are numbers 2 and 3 for 2010.
Typhoon 201002 (Canson - An historical place [Viet Nam] พายุ โกนเซิน) July 12 - 18, 2010
Typhoon 201003 (Chanthu - A kind of flower [Cambodia] พายุ จันทู) July 19 - 23, 2010
53 provinces hit by drought
Published: 26/03/2010 at 01:24 PM
Online news: Local News
The Interior Ministry's Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department on Friday announced that 53 provinces, 382 districts, 2,499 tambons and 1,9,704 villages throughout the country has been declared disaster areas hit by drought.
Of the 53 provinces, 16 are in the North, 15 in the Northeast, eight in the Central, seven in the East, and seven in the South.
The 16 drought-hit provinces in the North are Kamphaeng Phet, Chiang Rai, Tak, Nan, Phayao, Lampang, Lamphun, Phrae, Sukhothai, Uttaradit, Nakhon Sawan, Phichit, Chiang Mai, Mae Hong Son, Phitsanulok and Phetchabun.
The 15 dought-hit provinces in the Northeast are Khon Kaen, Loei, Nong Bua Lamphu, Chaiyaphum, Udon Thani, Ubon Ratchathani, Buri Ram, Mukdahan, Nong Khai, Roi-et, Yasothon, Surin, Sakon Nakhon, Nakhon Phanom, and Nakhon Ratchasima.
The eight Central provinces are Prachuap Khiri Khan, Phetchaburi, Ratchaburi, Suphan Buri, Kanchanaburi, Chai Nat, Lop Buri, and Nakhon Pathom.
The seven eastern provinces are Sa Kaew, Chachoengsao, Chanthaburi, Prachin Buri, Nakhon Nayok, Trat and Rayong.
The seven southern provinces are Trang, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Ranong, Satun, Chumphon, Surat Thani, and Krabi.
A total of 6,482,602 people of 1,755,100 households have been affected. The drought has caused damaged to 147,482 rai of farmland.
The disaster prevention and mitigation offices in these provinces have distributed more than 78 million cubic million litres of water to drought-hit people, repaired 3,645 weirs, dredged 3,985 reservoirs, and installed 689 water pumps to alleviate the people's hardship.
53 provinces hit by drought
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/172810/53-provinces-hit-by-drought
Widespread Fires, Smoky Skies Across Southeast Asia
acquired March 5, 2010
The skies over Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam were extremely smoky on March 5, 2010, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite passed overhead and captured this image. Hundreds of active fires were detected by the sensor; locations are outlined in red.
Many of the fires, particularly in the permanently cultivated lowland areas, are not particularly smoky. This is often a sign that the fires are burning only small amounts of vegetation, such as crop residue or dry grass in pasture. Other fires are generating thick smoke plumes which spread east. These may be accidental fires that spread from agricultural areas into forest areas, or they may be intentional forest-clearing fires.
Widespread fires are a common occurrence in Southeast Asia during the late dry season, and while they are not necessarily immediately hazardous, they can have a significant impact on regional air quality and public health, greenhouse gas emissions, and natural resources.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.
Instrument:
Aqua - MODIS
Widespread Fires, Smoky Skies Across Southeast Asia : Natural Hazards
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=43033&src=eorss-nh
... Meanwhile, in the northern province of Uttaradit, the Sirikit Dam is also facing the lowest water levels in 10 years, causing sandbars on which cars can pass through and people can take a walk.
Dam director Somkid Khaengraeng said its water levels are now in crisis, as there is only 1.46 billion cubic metres, while the Royal Irrigation Department requires the dam to daily release water at 24 million cubic metres in order to help drought victims in the area.
Mr Somkid also urged local residents to use the water prudently and to avoid growing off-season paddy fields, for crops will be damaged due to water shortage.
If rice farmers do not stop rice farming, he warned, the dam can only release water for another 75 days, for the rest of the water must be kept as backup supply in the reservoir. (TNA)
March 5, 2010
วันศุกร์ ที่ 05 มี.ค. 2553
http://www.mcot.net/content/28516
RED LINE: Water levels in 2010 (Buddhist year 2553)
GREEN LINE: Water levels in 2009 (Buddhist year 2552)
BLUE SHADING: Reserves available in 2010
MAUVE SHADING: Reserves available in 2009
March 5, 2010
วันศุกร์ ที่ 05 มี.ค. 2553
http://www.sirikitdam.egat.com/sk_plant/hydroweb/test00.php
Asia Sentinel
Rice Shortage: Crisis or Hype?
JET DAMAZO
29 May 2008
The world’s rice crisis seems to have come and gone
Whatever happened to the rice crisis? In April, reports of a global food crisis and exorbitant spikes in food prices hogged headlines after major-rice exporting countries announced export restrictions and importing countries — the Philippines in particular — scrambled to secure rice supplies from neighboring countries.
Just a month later, however, prices have begun to fall, the export ban has been lifted in Cambodia and both Vietnam and India, two other rice-exporting nations, have suggested they may lift restrictions as well amid a growing realization by governments that there is no immediate rice shortage after all. The price fell Wednesday to the lowest in more than two months and has fallen by nearly 30 percent. Mentions of rice shortage in the news now have the words “alleged” and “perceived” attached to them — but not before the global panic over rice supplies caused prices to shoot up to around $1,000 per metric ton in the global market.
The leader of the world’s largest rice importer, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, is now being attacked by critics for actions that would otherwise have been praised if the shortage had been real—raising farm gate prices to encourage local farmers to produce more rice, jailing rice hoarders and promoting alternative staples like sweet potatoes to her rice-consuming constituents — saying these led to more hoarding and pushed prices higher. The Philippines, it turns out, has 54 days of rice stocks on hand, nearly double China’s.
“The price increase was induced by hype,” claims Rosario Bella Guzman, executive editor of local think tank IBON Foundation, after local rice prices increased by over 20 percent over the first quarter of the year—from P23.31 (US 53¢) per kilo of regular milled rice in January to P29.70 in April.
A memo from the country’s agriculture department to the office of the president in February, she says, said that the government needed to import 2.4 million metric tons of rice because of increasing global prices and tightening supply growth, even though the projected shortfall was only around 1.4 million metric tons. “The Philippines was panic buying at exorbitant rates,” she adds. “The excess would only end up in private warehouses.”
So was the rice shortage real or perceived? Adam Barclay, a spokesperson for the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), based in the Philippines, maintains that the real underlying cause of the rice price increase is the long-term imbalance between demand and supply, which has gradually pushed up prices since 2001.
“The long-term demand and supply imbalance implies that we have been consuming more than what we have been producing. This gap between demand and supply was met by depleting rice stocks which are now down to a 20-year low,” Barclay said. “This rise in price accelerated towards the end of 2007 as traditional exporting countries such as India and Vietnam imposed export restrictions.”
The problem was exacerbated by the disastrous results of Cyclone Nargis in Burma, which virtually destroyed the rice production capability of the Irrawaddy River Delta. Burma, which had contracted to sell 600,000 tonnes of rice to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, was suddenly turned into a net importer, needing about 500,000 tonnes, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. In addition, North Korea appears to be headed into serious famine and faces a shortfall of as much as a million tonnes of grains, not necessarily rice, although the country’s problems can be expected to cut into other world grain stocks, which are in increasingly short supply.
In addition, according to the just-released OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook for 2008 through 2017, “the overall trend of rising output masks an expected fall in (planted area) due to rivalry with other crops and nonagricultural sectors for land.” Rice is also expected to gain importance in African diets, where consumption per capita is expected to rise by about 10 percent annually over the next decade
But Barclay acknowledged that the combination of export restrictions from some countries and the need for imports from other countries, including speculations and panicked reactions following the ban in rice exports, did contribute to the sudden spike in rice price in March-April this year.
“Other factors include the rapid rise in price of oil (which has raised the cost of fertilizer, irrigation and transport) and pest and weather problems in several key rice-growing areas (for example pest problems in Vietnam, floods in Bangladesh, and drought in the Philippines and Australia),” Barclay added. “The convergence of these problems with several longer-term trends, such as population growth, economic growth and shifting diets in India and China, the increasing popularity of rice in Africa, and a leveling off of productivity growth prompted the rapid price rises.”
Food security expert Mohiuddin Alamgir, former director for policy and planning at the International Fund for Agricultural Development and currently a consultant with the Asian Development Bank, also agrees that the country’s actions, along with speculative commodities traders and opportunistic rice traders, contributed to the spike in prices.
"There is a structural gap in the country’s supply and demand of rice, which is why the Philippines is now the world’s largest importer of rice. The world knows this and so the country’s actions will always impact the market,” Alamgir explained, adding that the manner in which the government came into the market can be debated, as it may have sent the wrong signal. But, he says, had it not been for Arroyo’s actions, the country would have been in a worse situation, prices today would have been much higher, and lines at the government’s subsidized rice stores would have been longer.
“The country’s problem was that it did not plan properly,” he adds. “But people are hurting and they would have hurt more had it not been for the actions taken. Food security is as important as national security, and so governments have to make sure people have food.”
http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=127743
Taking the green plunge
Organic rice farmers enjoy double benefits
May 20, 2008
By Peter Janssen, dpa
Rice prices have more than doubled, so paddy in the field means money in the bank or debts paid off. Thai farmers growing organic rice have even more to smile about.
Although organic rice farming is still miniscule in Thailand, where most farmers remain attached to their chemical fertilisers and industrial pesticides, those who have taken the green plunge are reaping double rewards this year.
"If you use chemical fertiliser you have to buy from the market and now the price of fertiliser is very high because it is linked to oil prices," said Upin Khasana, an organic rice farmer in Sanam Chai Ket district of Chachoengsao province, 60 kilometres east of Bangkok.
Upin belongs to a 15-family co-op of farmers who decided to switch to organic rice growing seven years ago, with technical input from Green Net, a non-governmental organisation that promotes organic farming in Thailand and helps farmers sell their crops on the domestic market and abroad.
The Chachoengsao co-op uses only natural fertiliser - cow and goat droppings - and no chemical pesticides. In return, Green Net buys their rice at a premium price, usually a little above the market's, and handles the certification process under the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), selling under the Green Net brand name.
After 14 years in the business, Green Net is only producing about 2,000 tons a year of organic rice, supplied by cooperatives in Yasothon, Chiang Mai, Uttaradit, Loei, Khon Khen and Chachoengsao provinces.
"We started out just selling locally, but now we export about 85 per cent," said Vitoon Panyakul, director of the Green Net.
Green Net's only competitor in the organic rice trade is the Capital Rice Company, one of Thailand's leading rice exporters.
Capital Rice started an organic rice farm project in Chiang Rai province in 1991, at the request of Italy's Riseria Monferrato S.p.A., a major rice distributor in Europe.
Last year, Capital Rice exported about 1,000 tons of organic rice under its Great Harvest brand, mainly to Europe.
"If you compare that to Capital Rice's total exports, it is very small, less than 1 per cent," said Wanlop Pichpongsa, deputy managing director of the company.
Thailand's total rice exports last year amounted to 9.55 million tons, earning the country 3.6 billion dollars. This year's rice exports are estimated to reach 8.75 million tons, earning as much as 4.7 billion dollars, winning farmers and exporters a bonanza from higher commodity prices, ramped up by high oil prices and artificial shortages caused by export bans in India and Vietnam.
If anything, the doubling of rice prices this year is probably bad news for organic rice traders such as Green Net and Capital Rice, since higher prices will encourage farmers to try to produce more paddy by using more chemical fertilisers.
"In a way it is okay, because we will see that those who remain with us are really committed to the organic cause," said Green Net's Vitoon. "So it's a way to shake things up a bit and see who is in it just for the money and who is committed."
Capital Rice has put its organic rice expansion plans on hold, also because of uncertainty about farmers' "commitment."
"The character of a community has to be suitable for organic farming," noted Wanlop. "Not every community is suitable. For instance, the rice growers in the central plains can grow rice two- three times a year by using chemicals and pesticides, so they are not interested."
But for the organic rice growers of Sanam Chai Khet in Chanchoengsao, staying committed to the organic cause is more about choosing a lifestyle.
"We do it for our lives more than for the money," said Nutchainat Keowuwee, a member of the Chachoengsao Green Net co-op. "My husband worked with chemical fertiliser for a long time and he became sick. His health was no good. That's one reason I switched to organic."
In Sanam Chai Khet, as in most rice growing villages in Thailand, the farmers keep most of their rice harvest for their own consumption through the year, selling only a portion of it to Green Net for sale on the domestic or export markets.
"The price we get for our rice is about the same as the market price, but what we get is better health," said Uenfah Chamkhet, another co-op member. "We are saving money on medical bills."
--
— The economics in the opening and closing paragraphs don't match up , but there are some interesting morsels in between. — Mac
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F8259015-8BAC-42F0-ADF5-F3F4A5A9526C.htm
WEDNESDAY, MAY 07, 2008
10:37 MECCA TIME, 7:37 GMT
Cyclone smashes Myanmar 'rice bowl'
The destruction wrought by Cyclone Nargis also threatens to have devastated Myanmar's agricultural heartland, posing concerns over long-term food shortages across an already desperately poor country.
The Irrawaddy delta region, which bore the brunt of the storm, has long been known as the rice-bowl of Myanmar.
But the features that made it so fertile – its low lying geography and its proximity to water - also made it vulnerable to disaster.
In the wake of the storm UN relief officials have reported distribution networks in the region in tatters and large tracts of rice-growing land still under water. Rice plants generally die if they remain submerged for about four days.
"The cyclone certainly complicates matters," said Paul Risley, a spokesman with the UN's World Food Programme in Bangkok.
"It blew through the critical rice-growing areas of the country and it seems the harvest was only partially completed. This could represent a substantial loss to the country's rice output," he said.
According estimated by the Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organization the five states hit hardest by the cyclone on Saturday produce 65 per cent of the country's rice.
The region also is home to 80 per cent of its aquaculture, 50 per cent of its poultry and 40 per cent of its pig production, the FAO said.
With as many as a million people directly affected by the catastrophe, rice shortages and possible accompanying public resentment present a major challenge to the country's military government.
With food shortages and rising prices already triggering riots in poor countries, the cyclone's disruption of the harvest in one of Asia's richest rice-growing areas could also have global implications.
Until last weekend, Myanmar had been expected to export a portion of its rice harvest.
Shortfalls could hit Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and other regional neighbours that had been counting on importing Myanmar's rice.
Traders suggest that in the cyclone's wake, world rice prices, already soaring, could be sent higher.
Globally the cost of rice has already nearly tripled since the beginning of the year, busting the budgets of humanitarian agencies that provide emergency food aid to disaster-struck countries.
In depth: Cyclone Nagris
Eyewitness: 'Utter devastation'
Relief work hampered by red tape
Cyclone threatens military's grip
Map: The deadly path of Cyclone Nargis
Satellite photos: Before and after the cyclone
Timeline: Asia's deadliest storms
Video: Toll soars
Bangkok Post : General news
http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/12Apr2008_news22.php
... According to the Meteorological Department, Thailand's annual mean maximum temperature has increased from 32.3C (90.14F) in the 1950s to 32.9C (91.22F) last year.
The department has forecast that during the Songkran week, between April 9-15, the highest recorded temperature will be 39C (102.2F).
The figure is considered moderate for many of us as we have experienced the 40-plus (104-plus F) degree heat several times in the past.
According to the department's records, Thailand's hottest day in the past 55 years stood at 44.5C (112.1F), which was measured on April 27, 1960 in Uttaradit province.
In the old days, people would bathe in the rivers or just relax at tai toon baan, an open space under a Thai-style house. But the most popular way for people to shield themselves from the heat these days is to go to shopping malls or simply turn on the air-conditioners at home.
Various other means also are being used to fight the heat.
If you walk along the banks of the Chao Phraya river or some of the cleaner klongs, you will find that children are still jumping into the waterways to escape from the scorching sun.
Many people may find the hot season an undesirable period, but instead of just complaining about the heat, we should use this torrid moment to think about our lifestyles — how we can adapt ourselves to the hotter weather in an environmentally-friendly manner like our ancestors have done and how we can help stop the world's temperatures from soaring.
International Herald Tribune
http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?id=4698260
Bangkok's template for an air-quality turnaround
By Thomas Fuller
Friday, February 23, 2007
BANGKOK: Black smoke billowing from tailpipes into the humid, tropical air was once a Bangkok trademark. But a decade and a half after Thailand began a battle for better air quality, this erstwhile icon of smog has emerged as a role model for Asia's pollution-choked capitals, boasting considerably cleaner air than Beijing, Jakarta, New Delhi and Shanghai.
Some buses here still belch toxic vapor. And Thailand's political future is hard to plot as the country seeks to extricate itself from the tangled legacy of the military-led coup last September. Yet the skies in Bangkok on most days are blue, thanks to the work of a small, dedicated group of bureaucrats who pressed the case for cleaner air despite a history of weak, short-lived governments.
"There's a huge difference when you walk around the streets," said Jitendra Shah, a coordinator at the World Bank for environment and social issues in Southeast Asia who has worked in Bangkok since the 1990s. "Breathing is definitely easier."
Thailand's battle against air pollution provides a virtual how-to manual of environmental cleanup, say Shah and other air quality experts in Asia. Thai officials cajoled oil companies to produce cleaner fuel, used higher taxes to phase out the once-ubiquitous two- stroke motorcycles and converted all taxis to run on clean-burning liquefied petroleum gas. They overcame lobbying campaigns from the large, mostly Japanese-owned car industry and imposed progressively stricter emissions controls based on European norms (Thailand had no emissions standards before 1992).
The local government enacted simple but highly effective measures like washing the streets to keep the dust down. Buddhist crematoria in and around the city were urged to change from wood-burning pyres to more sophisticated electric incinerators.
The striking result is that, while the number of motor vehicles registered in Bangkok has increased by 40 percent over the past decade, the average levels of the most dangerous types of pollution — small dust particles that embed themselves in the lungs — have been cut by 47 percent, from 81 to 43 micrograms per cubic meter during the same period. Bangkok's air, on average, now falls within the limit set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of 50 micrograms per cubic meter, but is above the European Union limit of 40.
"It's possible for others to follow what we've done here," said Supat Wangwongwatana, director general of the pollution control department at Thailand's Ministry of Environment.
It's a line that Supat has used often in recent years. The World Bank and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have dispatched him to countries around the region, including India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, to speak in antipollution workshops.
Four decades ago Thailand did not even have a word for pollution — there was barely use for it in a city with many fewer cars. It was only in 1976 that the country's Royal Institute, the official arbiter of the Thai language, coined the word "mollapit." The word means "poison or toxins that come from impurity or dirtiness," according to Naiyana Wara-aswapati, a senior linguist at the institute.
Yet giving pollution a name was far easier than cleansing the air. And as pedestrians in Bangkok can attest, some of the poison still lingers. The city still has nagging air quality problems especially — and paradoxically — in neighborhoods served by the city's relatively new mass transit system, which was supposed to help ease pollution by allowing commuters to leave their cars at home.
Pollution gets trapped underneath the concrete platforms of the elevated railway and can rise to levels that rival the most polluted cities in Asia: 85 to 180 micrograms per cubic meter of dust particles — many times higher than the World Health Organization's guidelines of 20 micrograms per cubic meter.
"No matter how much cleaner the gasoline becomes it stills stinks," said Chainarong Nobnobe, a traffic police officer working in one of the most congested areas of Bangkok. "There should be measures to limit the number of cars."
Greater Bangkok, with a population of about 10 million, has not yet achieved the air quality of Singapore or Tokyo. These latter cities have on average the cleanest air of major Asian capitals — air quality roughly equivalent to New York City's. But what Bangkok has shown is that you do not need to have Singapore's authoritarian legacy or Tokyo's riches to make radical improvements to the environment.
Thailand has also demonstrated that a thriving car industry is not incompatible with cleaner air, said Shah of the World Bank. Thailand, which will produce about 1.28 million cars and trucks and 3.5 million motorcycles this year, is Asia's third-largest exporter of vehicles, after Japan and Korea.
Part of Bangkok's success in cleaning its air is due to luck and geography. Unlike Los Angeles, Bangkok has no surrounding mountains to trap smog. Unlike Beijing, which has some of the worst air in East Asia, power plants around Bangkok do not use coal. Thailand gets natural gas from neighboring Myanmar and its own platforms in the Gulf of Thailand; 70 percent of the country's power production is from natural gas, which burns more cleanly than coal.
Most of the credit for the cleaner air, however, goes to a group of strong- willed environmental pioneers, said Nuntavarn Vichit-Vadakan, dean of the Faculty of Public Health at Thammasat University. Technocrats, often trained in the United States, convinced politicians of the need for action, Nuntavarn said.
They faced considerable resistance. Supat, the director of the pollution control department, helped usher in Thailand's first laws on tailpipe emissions, based mainly on European standards. In the early 1990s he traveled to Japan with Kasem Sanitwong Na Ayutthaya, the current environment minister, to persuade Japanese automakers to make and sell cleaner cars in Thailand.
Bhichit Rattakul, a U.S.-trained microbiologist, created the Anti-Air Pollution & Environmental Protection Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group, in 1986, well before going green was trendy. Elected Bangkok governor in 1996, he planted 400,000 trees, cracked down on polluting trucks and established stricter rules for dusty construction sites.
When Bhichit announced that the local government would transform an 18-hole golf course incongruously located on the outskirts of Bangkok into a giant park, he famously faced off with hundreds of protesting golf caddies who barricaded themselves on the grounds of the club and threw golf balls and bricks at officials who tried to dislodge them. (Police ultimately dispersed the caddies and the area is today a public park as planned.)
Piyasvasti Amranand, a former secretary general of Thailand's National Energy Policy Office, in 1991 established the country's first comprehensive plan to remove lead, sulfur and other harmful chemicals from fuel. Piyasvasti, who is now energy minister, says he encountered strong resistance from Western oil companies and Japanese car manufacturers; he recalled long debates over the proposed introduction of catalytic converters, the device that neutralizes harmful chemicals before they are emitted from tailpipes.
At the time, Bangkok's air was laden with dust, lead and other harmful chemicals. In 1993, 28 percent of children tested at six Bangkok schools had lead concentrations higher than the acceptable threshold set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control: 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood. Traffic policemen and bus drivers also showed high lead levels but in children it was considered most harmful because lead has been shown to retard mental development.
After Thailand completely phased out lead gasoline 1995 (a year before the United States although the U.S. had started its gradual reduction program in 1973, well before Thailand) lead levels plummeted in Bangkok. By 2000 only 3 percent of children at the same schools in Bangkok were above the threshold.
In the West as in Thailand leaded gasoline seems like ancient history. Yet one measure of Thailand's head-start is that in Indonesia refineries stopped producing leaded gasoline only last year.
In the early 1990s Supat used data on the high lead levels in schoolchildren to convince the owner's of Thailand's major oil refineries, motorcycle and car manufacturers – and the public – that something needed to be done.
Although public concern about pollution was rising, Supat said many Thais were also worried that better fuel and more efficient engines would cost more money. Supat responded by saying that the black smoke coming out of vehicles was unburnt fuel. "We're wasting a lot of fuel out of the tailpipe," he remembers repeating.
In the end it was consumers, not industry, that paid for the higher quality fuel and tighter emissions controls on cars. The government altered the tax structure to make unleaded gasoline cheaper even though it was more expensive to produce than leaded fuel. This was achieved by sleight of hand: Officials avoided a loss of revenue for the government by quietly raising a levy on gasoline several months before the introduction of unleaded fuel, channeling the extra proceeds into a special oil fund, and then lowering the levy only for unleaded fuel.
"That is the pattern we've been using all along: increasing the oil fund without people noticing. Slip it in," Piyasvasti said.
Piyasvasti used the same tactic last October, raising the oil levy in preparation for greater incentives for biodiesel (diesel mixed with locally produced palm oil) and gasohol (gasoline mixed with ethanol made from locally produced sugar cane and tapioca). These fuels, which have been available in small quantities since 2004, burn more cleanly and help Thailand reduce its oil and energy imports, which today stand at around 60 percent of energy consumption. The government hopes that once taxes are lowered consumers will be drawn in greater numbers to these fuels.
"The general public likes lower prices. That's the most important thing," Piyasvasti said.
On the streets of Bangkok, residents give the city's fight against pollution mixed reviews.
Suwanna Jusing, 50, the owner of a roadside restaurant in northern Bangkok, said pollution had improved during the three decades she had been selling her chicken, pork and shrimp noodle dishes to customers at roadside tables. The authorities are trying to make Bangkok "a better place to live," she said. "And that makes me happy."
Pacharapun Tinnabal, 25, a graduate student who recently returned after living three years in Jakarta, said she was relieved to return home because the air in the Indonesian capital is "far more polluted."
But others, such as Thongpoon Nawiman, a 41-year-old motorcycle messenger who spends five days a week wending through Bangkok's wide boulevards and tiny alleys, is not satisfied. "The air is still polluted, and the traffic is still bad," he said.
Bhichit, the former Bangkok governor, agrees that there's lots of room for improvement.
"I'm still not a happy man," he said. "I'm trying to demand more."
After his 4-year term as governor, which ended in 2000, Bhichit returned to a career of environmental activism, and reinvigorating his anti-air pollution foundation.
Hundreds of volunteers filmed and photographed buses spewing black smoke, evidence that Bhichit used in a lawsuit against the city's transit authority. Last year he won a partial victory to retire some decrepit, polluting buses, but the transit authority is appealing the decision.
"They should revoke the licenses of these people," Bhichit said. He blames Supat at the pollution control department for not cracking down hard enough.
It will be years before all of the ancient buses and two-stroke motorcycles hit the scrap heap. But as they slowly fade away, Bangkok's air will improve even more, say experts. Close to 100 percent of motorcycle sold in Thailand today have 4-stroke engines, an almost total reversal from a decade earlier. Supat is also trying to convince drivers of Bangkok's 9,000 iconic but heavily polluting three-wheeled "tuk-tuks" to change over to 4-stroke engines.
In November the government approved the construction of five new or extended light-rail lines, scheduled for completion in 2012. The city is also planning a "Bus Rapid Transport" system, a network of dedicated bus lanes separated from traffic.
The car will remain king in Bangkok for years, but government officials say they hope residents will leave them at home most days.
"There's no problem to own a car but don't use it that much," Supat said.
http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=581&Itemid=32
The false promise of biofuels
PHILIP BOWRING
16 July 2007
The idea that plant-based fuel will save the planet is silly, dangerous and expensive
Evidence continues to mount that the world’s growing appetite for energy produced from agricultural products is having a serious impact on food and other commodity prices as farmers, particularly in the United States, convert cropland from food production. Over time the impact will be large and mostly detrimental on income distribution around the world. It will probably be abandoned within a decade.
Fidel Castro, the octogenarian Cuban caudillo, roused himself in late June from the autumn of his patriarchy to denounce US support for the use of food crops in fuel production, saying support for such uses could cause huge numbers of deaths from hunger. Last week Achim Steiner, the head of the U.N. Environment Program echoed Castro’s concerns, saying there is serious reason for concern about the potential for ethanol production to threaten food supplies for the poor.
With its astonishing ability to convert sunlight and rain into energy, Asia’s tropical belt is at the epicenter of this new environmental chimera. But across the planet, while weather and other supply factors have been at work for some crops and in some locations, they are only a small part of the explanation for food prices.
Wheat, for instance, has risen from US$325 a ton to US$620 over the past 12 months, soybeans from US$675 to US$875, corn from US$225 to US$375, rice from US$7 a bushel to US$10. Indeed of the most-traded basic foodstuffs, only sugar is about where it was a year ago, at 10 US cents a pound, and even hit 20 cents in between.
Of industrial crops, cotton has been erratic but is back at 60 cents a pound compared with 50 cents a year ago and there are growing indications that a shift in land from cotton to corn and other bio-fuel crops in China and the US will lead to supply shortfalls in the not too distant future. Even rubber output may be squeezed if the palm oil boom, resulting from its appeal as a source of bio-diesel, leads to further conversion of rubber plantations to palm oil.
Much of the marginal demand for the food crops is directly attributable to the rush to make ethanol and bio-diesel in the name of reducing carbon emissions, whether or not the substitution is justified on economic grounds, let alone environmental ones.
That is not to condemn bio-fuels out of hand. Brazil has been producing ethanol from sugar cane since the first oil crisis and now does so very profitably. But Brazil already has the world’s lowest production costs for sugar. Sugar’s international price has long been depressed by subsidies elsewhere – notably the EU’s sugar beet subsidy and US domestic support prices for sugar. It is possible that Thailand can get a net benefit from turning both sugar cane and tapioca (otherwise a low-value crop grown on marginal land) into ethanol. In the short run at least, Malaysia and Indonesia are benefiting from a rise in palm oil prices, which they hope will be underwritten for the longer term by investing in bio-diesel plants which will sustain demand.
Almost everywhere, from the US to the EU to Malaysia, rules and tax breaks have been created to push bio-fuel output and usage. The additional demand for feedstock for the multiple bio-fuel plants now under construction or planned is hard to estimate. However, even if oil prices collapse and many plants never get built, government regulations and existing installed capacity are likely to ensure that crop prices remain high for the foreseeable future. Indeed the price rises of the past year may be just the beginning.
Yet even on the most optimistic estimates bio-fuels can have no more than a marginal impact on carbon emissions.
While the West basks in the idea that bio-fuel is cleaning up the planet, additional carbon releases are being created by the clearance of tropical forests for oil palm in Southeast Asia and soybeans in Brazil. Inefficiencies are rising from US and EU agricultural policies, with the US subsidizing corn producers by subjecting Brazil’s sugar-based ethanol to prohibitive tariffs and the EU’s ethanol policy absorbing surplus food and thereby delaying the reform of its agricultural policy, which has disrupted world markets for decades. In addition, chemical inputs and fossil-fuel burning machinery are needed to bring marginal land into production.
There will also be a major global impact on income distribution. Farmers generally will benefit from a rise in product prices, which is a plus. In most countries farmers have suffered from a decline in the terms of trade relative to their urban compatriots. However, much of the benefit will go to the largest farmers in rich and middle income countries with large agricultural surpluses – US, Canada, Argentina, Malaysia, Australia etc – and to corporate agriculture.
Populous countries such as India, China and Vietnam, with a high proportion of their population still rural, face a dilemma. Higher farm prices are good but they must also take into account the needs of the majority, whether urban or rural, who are not farmers. That means either suppressing farm gate prices by one means or another, or using central government funds that should be allocated to education or health, to subsidize basic foods.
The bottom line is that the poorer a person or family, the higher the proportion of income that is spent on food. A rise in food prices relative to other goods necessarily shifts income from the poor to the relatively rich, whether the car-owning majority in rich countries or the car-owning minority in poor ones. It could also lead to a reversal of the tendency towards improving diet. Producers of animal pigs, chickens, farmed fish, and egg all turn crops into animal protein and hence their prices will rise almost as fast as those of the inputs. Even the cost of simple cotton clothing may rise as a result of a shift of land into other uses.
Bio-fuels may salve the consciences of energy-intensive rich countries and benefit the few poorer ones that have an abundance of useful ingredients such as palm oil. But a few years from now the notion that enforced use of bio-fuels could be good for the planet will be seen as one of the sillier ideas to have gripped the world at the beginning of the 21st century.