It now appears that conflicting stories about the management of Bangkok's flood relief are coming from the government and the flood management agency known as The Flood Relief Operations Centre (FROC). On Wednesday, the Prime Minister, Yingluck Shinawatra said that it would depend on how the dykes and barriers in the city held up, adding that she was 50% certain that the inner zone of the capital would not be flooded.
Flood Relief Operations Centre (FROC)
However, on Thursday morning, a spokesman for FROC said that all Bangkokians who were already affected or could be affected should consider evacuating to other places. Conflicting messages like these have left the people confused with some staying and struggling to find supplies and drinking water and other residents leaving with what they can carry wrapped in clothes or strapped to bicycles or push-carts.
Then this morning, October 27th, the governor of Bangkok, Sukhumbhand Paribatra, warned that the whole city was liable to be flooded today, as he called for more sandbags to counteract the billions of cubic metres of backed-up water that is edging down from the Northern provinces to the capital. The governor is a member of the Democrat Party, in opposition to the Prime Minister's Peau Thai party.
Rumours of Newspaper Censorship
A new NGO has been formed to protect press freedom and defend the rights of journalists to report news, as some writers have been alarmed by reports that Yingluck Shinawatra's government is trying to censor the website Thaiflood which has been providing information about the flooding, information not readily available on Thai television or in their newspapers.
As seems to always happen in times of major tragedy, it is the poorest section of the population that is most affected. Around Rangsit and Pathum Thani, the latter home to thousands of Burmese immigrants – mostly illegal – and the poor workers of Thai nationality, the residents are already waist high in water. The Burmese press reports that migrant workers are being exploited by traffickers and then deported by the Thai police. Some are even heading back to Burma.
Health Centres Geared for Emergencies
So far there is no rumour of illness or disease, something that normally accompanies flooding on the scale which Bangkok is experiencing. The authorities are keeping a weather eye on the aspect of the nation's health and with their excellent hospitals and clinics, no doubt Bangkok will be prepared to cope with any disasters such as this.
Sources:
Christian Science Monitor
Huffington Post
Friends in Thailand
Mari Nicholson - Award Winning travel writer and historian, member of British Guild of Travel Writers.Travelwriters.co.uk, and Society of Women Writers and ...
