“Hat Yai Model” flood warning systems for Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat

Thailand’s southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat lack an effective flood warning system, which could enable people to evacuate or prepare to cope with flooding and mitigate damage to property and loss of life, said Natthasit Rakkiatwong, a senior researcher at the Thailand Development and Research Institute (TDRI) today.

He recommended that the three provinces use the “Hat Yai Model” as a basis for their adoption of comprehensive flood warning systems.

He pointed out that there has not been a flood model created for the four main rivers in the three southern provinces, especially the Pattani River, leaving officials there unable to forecast accurately and assess the risk of flooding.

Natthasit claims that the Southern Natural Disaster Research Centre, at the Prince of Songkhla University, has proposed that the government fund research into an early flood warning system in the Pattani River basin, but this has not been approved.

The “Hat Yai Model”, which was adopted after a major flood in 2010, is operated by the Southern Natural Disaster Research Centre, which is responsible for research and designing flooding models, and an operations team, responsible for assessing flood and other natural disaster risks and alerting the public of those risks in advance.

He said that the operations team comprises representatives of all relevant agencies in Songkhla province, with the governor as an advisor.

Without a comprehensive flood warning system for the three provinces, Natthasit said that all the state can do, in case of a devastating flood, is to run relief operations and provide post-flood compensation, which will never be enough to cover the actual losses.

He suggested that the government sets aside a budget to fund research into a workable early warning system model for the three provinces, similar to the “Hat Yai Model”, so people will not suffer from repeated flooding every year without being prepared in advance.