Floods in Thailand 2011
The floods in Thailand in 2011 were caused by violent and unusually long monsoons from the beginning of July and mainly affected the area along the Mae Nam Chao Phraya (Chao Phraya River) . At the end of October, when the tide reached its peak, a further complicating factor was that a spring tide slowed the flow of water. With almost 400 victims, a flooded area of around six million hectares of land (almost 12 percent of Thailand) and property damage of around 11.8 billion euros, it was the largest flood disaster in Thailand for 50 years. The neighboring states of Laos and Cambodia were also affected by the floods.
In 58 Thai provinces , including the capital Bangkok and the former royal city of Ayutthaya was Katastrophenalarm proclaimed. Before the flood of up to three meters high, an almost 77 km long protective wall made of 1.7 million sandbags was erected in Bangkok , which largely withstood it, but was sometimes intentionally damaged by residents from the parts of the country north of Bangkok so that the water could escape theirs faster Area drains.
In total, more than 2.3 million people were affected by the flood. The railways in northern Thailand were closed and 72 long-distance and over 180 country roads were impassable.
There was already severe flooding at the end of March 2011, most of which was in southern Thailand . Usually it is dry season there at this time . These floods killed 53 people and around 40,000 people had to be evacuated. A total of two million people in ten provinces were affected.
course
The monsoon rains started in 2011 in May. Tropical storm Nock-ten hit northern Vietnam in June . The associated heavy rainfalls led to flash floods and floods in the north and northeast of Thailand from July 31 . Within a week, 13 victims were reported from the floods. During this phase, the provinces of Chiang Mai, Lampang, Lamphun, Mae Hong Son, Nan, Phrae and Uttaradit in the north and the provinces of Bung Kan, Nakhon Phanom, Nong Khai, Sakon Nakhon and Udon Thani in the north-northeast of Thailand were affected. The northern central provinces of Phichit, Phitsanulok and Sukhothai were also affected by the flooding of the Mae Nam Yom and Mae Nam Nan rivers .
The flood continued because the monsoon rains were stronger than usual due to the effect of La Niña . In the center of Nan , the water was 50 cm high at the end of August. The highest water levels since 1995 were observed in Phitsanulok Province. In much of the further down the river system provinces of Nakhon Sawan, Ang Thong, Ayutthaya and Nakhon Nayok became stronger gradually flood, and until 22 August, the number of deaths due to the effects of the floods persons had risen to 37th At the Bhumibol Dam and at the Sirikit Dam , more and more water had to be drained in order to compensate for the incoming water.
On September 19, almost all of the central provinces of the lowlands were affected by the floods, including the provinces of Uthai Thani, Chai Nat, Sing Buri, Ang Thong, Suphan Buri, Ayutthaya, Pathum Thani and Nonthaburi; Pathum Thani and Nonthaburi are just north of the capital Bangkok. The failure of flood lock gates caused the water of the Chao Phraya to flood large areas of rice fields in Singburi, Ang Thong and Ayutthaya via irrigation canals , but this also had a positive effect because it reduced the pressure of the floods on Bangkok and these Areas acted as retention areas .
Within a few days at the end of September and beginning of October, the typhoons Nesat and Nalgae and the tropical storm Haitang continued to carry extremely humid air into the north and northeast of Thailand.
At the beginning of October, most of the reservoirs were filled or overcrowded, so that the flow rate had to be increased throughout, which further intensified the effects of the flooding downwards. At the end of October, the floods reached the outskirts of Bangkok and advanced to the southwest and southwest, so that parts of the provinces of Chachoengsao and Nakhon Pathom were inundated. The government then declared October 27th, 28th and 31st to be a public holiday so that civil servants could deal with the flood situation. Several districts in Bangkok had to be completely cleared because the water was over a meter high and the power supply had to be cut. Temporary accommodations were set up, but some had to be cleared again when the flood reached their areas. Bangkok residents tried to keep their cars and mopeds safe from the floods. For this purpose, the hard shoulder on the city's numerous bridges and the parking lot at the Suvarnabhumi airport, which is still open, have been released as a public parking lot.
Economic impact
Due to the flooding of the most important suppliers of drinking water, there were bottlenecks in the relevant supply in large parts of the country. There was no longer any drinking water to buy in any of the larger supermarkets, but this was also due to poor logistics. The Don Mueang inland airport had to be closed on October 25 due to flooding and the emergency shelters set up there evacuated. Since a large part of the harvest was destroyed by the flooding of many rice-growing areas, prices for staple foods are expected to rise.
In addition to the direct damage to the Thai economy, there was also a noticeable impact on the global economy. Delivery failures led u. a. to the scarcity of some electronic components that z. B. influenced the computer and auto industries. So z. B. the prices for computer hard drives in Germany on the end consumer market several times higher.
After the flood
The situation normalized in the course of December. Countless car wrecks came to light, and the water had spread vast amounts of rubbish all over the affected areas. The population was asked to take part in cleaning campaigns.
literature
- Erik Cohen: Flooded. An Auto-Ethnography of the 2011 Bangkok Flood. In: ASEAS - Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies , Volume 5, No. 2, 2012, pp. 316–334.
Web links
- ReliefWeb Thailand: Floods - Aug 2011 (Website of the UN Emergency Aid Coordinator , English)
- Flooding in Southeast Asia earthobservatory.nasa.gov, accessed November 4, 2011
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Water-in-Bangkok-at the earliest-in-ten-days-drained. Hamburger Abendblatt , accessed on November 1, 2011 .
- ↑ a b c Water masses threaten Bangkok. Image , accessed 15 October 2011 .
- ↑ The flood in Thailand has already claimed almost 300 lives
- ↑ a b Flood in Thailand kills 281. n-tv , accessed October 12, 2011 .
- ↑ (In Focus) - Cautious optimism in light of declining floods in Bangkok
- ↑ Flood Situation Report of October 16, 2011 (English)
- ↑ Floods in Thailand - number of victims rises to 53 RP-Online, April 5, 2011
- ↑ a b Thailand - number of deaths after storms rises to 45 Focus, April 4, 2011
- ↑ North, Northeast inundated by effects of Nock-ten (English) . In: Bangkok Post , August 1, 2011. Retrieved November 2, 2011.
- ↑ Thailand's flood death toll rises to 13 (English) . August 5, 2011. Archived from the original on November 2, 2011. Retrieved on November 2, 2011.
- ↑ Death toll in ravaged provinces climbs to 37 (English) . In: Bangkok Post , August 22, 2011. Retrieved November 2, 2011.
- ↑ La Nina to raise risk of flooding (English) . In: The Nation , August 23, 2011. Retrieved October 13, 2011.
- ↑ Thailand's flood death toll rises to 112 (English) . In: MCOT , September 19, 2011. Archived from the original on October 25, 2011 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved November 2, 2011.
- ↑ Bangkok 'safe' from river flooding (English) . In: Bangkok Post , October 21, 2011. Retrieved February 13, 2011.
- ↑ Major dams over capacity (English) , The Nation. October 2, 2011. Archived from the original on October 4, 2011 Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved October 5, 2011.
- ↑ a b Situation report from Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, October 26, 2011 (PDF, 911 kB; last accessed on November 17, 2011)
- ↑ Hard drives are running out. c't , October 24, 2011, accessed November 13, 2011 .
