Thailand: Flood mitigation plan 'unlikely to be in place in three years'

Pramote Maiklad, former chief of the Royal Irrigation Department and member of the Committee for Water Resources Management (SCWRM), questions in the Bangkok Post the feasibility of some projects and the three-year timeframe for the master plan, which is expected to cover immediate flood mitigation and long-term strategies to prevent flooding, especially in the Central Plains.

Seree Supratid, a lecturer on disaster management at Rangsit University, said the public should understand that proposed measures were to mitigate the impact of floods, not prevent them happening. "It's impossible to prevent flooding, even if you have floodways, new retention areas or new reservoirs," he said. "We can never say that flooding will not occur, nor that it will not have an impact if we have those measures."