The Chiang Rai Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Office report that despite the flood situation in the Mae Sai district improving, there is an absolute necessity for efficient water management and disaster prevention measures.
Tropical Storm Yagi dumped a lot of rain on Chiang Rai, particularly in the Mai Sai District, between September 9 and 12. Five people lost their lives and another three thousand had their lives upended by landslides and floods in the area.
The floods served as a stark reminder that Thailand needs stronger protections in the face of future natural catastrophes, says Assoc Prof Chuchoke Aryupong of Chiang Mai University’s Centre of Excellence in Natural Disaster Management.
According to him, a large number of residents reside in land that is prone to flooding. Because they have grown too close to rivers and old flood plains, they are now at danger of flooding.
The absence of practical understanding about flood management and the preparations needed to prevent or lessen the impacts of floods left local leaders and citizens vulnerable.
Warning System for the Mae Sai River
The Mae Sai River, which flows through the Mae Sai district, has seen substantial encroachment on both sides. There are now a lot of shops on the banks, which is making the river slow down.
Rapid submersion of nearby settlements occurs as a result of river rise and breaching flood barriers, he said.
The people here need to know that they are in a very precarious position. The timely and effective response depends on their ability to detect when the river is on the verge of overflowing. He claimed that evacuating people before floods occurred was much simpler and less expensive than doing it after the fact, when their homes are already underwater.
An absence of data from Myanmar, according to experts, hindered Mae Sai’s attempts to mitigate and prevent floods. Officials on this side of the border are unable to reliably forecast the water level of the Mae Sai River because the majority of its course is through Myanmar.
Since the Mae Sai River in Myanmar cannot have water-level monitoring devices installed by the local authorities, we must rely on meteorological predictions to determine the amount of precipitation that will flow into the river.
A water management expert from the Stockholm Environment Institute, Dr. Thanapon Piman, has been keeping an eye on the floods in Mae Sai and the neighbouring Tachilek province since 2019, according to an interview with Thai public broadcasting service PBS.
Changes in land usage in upstream areas of Myanmar, he said, were to blame for the recent spate of more severe flooding.
Look at the upstream zones of Myanmar, and you’ll see that they’ve removed a lot of forest for cultivation and mining. He claimed that the absence of natural flood-ways or water-retention sites in the surrounding landscape makes it impossible to prevent floods in Mae Sai.
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