Wednesday Walk: going around the flooded area and taking some photos.

My sixth sense on flooding has turned out to be correct. I was telling my gardener last year that I wouldn’t plant any new fruit trees in the fields near the river. Though the soil there was much richer than the banana grove, I told her that I couldn’t risk the possibility of another severe flood in the near future. I was glad I didn’t allow any expensive trees to be planted last year though I was very tempted. The water level kept on rising everyday by about half a meter to one meter. I knew it would flood the lower fields in a few days.

I had to keep checking the river and levels of flooding everyday by cycling along the river. I was hoping that the dams in Laos wouldn’t release so much water at such a speed. It reflected that they had problems from failure of water management and had to try to reduce the pressure on the big dam. They shouldn’t have hoarder water during the dry season too much; the river down stream was reduced to narrow canal for the first time in years! That gave me a hint of very severe flooding in rainy season. People on both sides of the river have suffered badly from damages of sudden flooding.

On the fifth day of flooding, the water started to invade the dirt road. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to cycle around any more. Then, flood water came into the lower side of the banana groves, the water level was at knee level. During my cycling session, I could see much worse flooding along the north side of the riverfront. All the land there seemed to be one to two meters lower than our area. So, most trees were under water and the fields became a large pond or small lake. Villagers have lost all their plants and vegetables.

As I cycled past the fisherman village, an old man complained that their huts would be flooded soon. That would create quite a havoc for all these families and their pets, including their chickens and cows. The news of sudden floodings in several provinces in the north was much worse as people were totally cut off from transportation and communications. They had to go without food and water for two to three days before being rescued. Many people lost all their belongings with flowing water. Independent charities and groups of volunteers were the first to organise concrete help to these flood victims. The civil servants worked under order and chain of command, so they would be the last to appear on the scene.

Only the damages occurred, did the officers in various organisations responsible for water management and cooperations with other authorities in Laos and China came out to complain about lack of prior information from neighbouring countries. I would have thought that these officials would be having meetings on water issues throughout the year and had real time information on water statistics and plans of all concerned parties. They totally failed on the management and monitoring of water issues.

I guessed that people who worked on those dams weren’t top people with highly paid salaries. These were just some secured jobs with routine tasks, so they were left to get on with routine decision making without concern on the macro picture and overall consequences of their decisions. Politicians couldn’t see the relevance of water management or its importance on the expansion of their power and rewards. Only when the low ranking officers released too much water downstream which then flooded factories belonging to powerful investors, these politicians would try to redress the situation.

Our politicians were still operating on the level of 3G which was probably quite a blessing. If they were much more sophisticated and quick witted, they could probable devise more subtle corruptions and schemes beyond our visibility. Recently some independent water experts have been giving some hints that severe flooding would affect the big cities in the central part of the country. Some industrial parks have stepped up flood barriers and taken more precautions. The official lines have been to downplay the volume of flood water and downplay the possibility of bad flooding in Bangkok.

Yesterday, flood water has arrived around Ayutthaya, less then 200 kilometers from Bangkok. There were more deluges of rainfall in the northern provinces where some area have been flooded twice in one month. More agricultural areas have been flooded. So I would expect the cost of living would be higher soon. The slow speed of officials’ decision making and the government’s reluctance to release extra money to help flooded victims were very disappointing to me. The government didn’t want to spare any budget as politicians were pushing for the digital money and wallets in a month’s time. Some sources said this UBI (Universal Basic Income project) via digital money and wallets were parts of digital ID and complete control of people according to plans instigated by the WEF.

So, we are living in very exciting and challenging time. In retrospect, the unexpected flooding cloud turn out to be a blessing in disguise. The unexpected variables have entered the political chess boards. Political rivals would have more pawns to play with, the game has become more unpredictable with more uncertainty. Ordinary people would have to solve their problems once again, government officials only worked on a part-time basis, they came for more publicity. At least we could still import cheap agricultural produce from China if the situation dictated the necessity. But bankers would end up with more NPL (non-performing loans).

Had we been able to obtain very cheap source of energy, things would have been tremendously much improved in very short time. The costs of transportation and food production would become much cheaper. The quality of life would also be improved. I continued to pray for divine intervention in helping to alleviate the flooding situation in my country. I would have to assess the damages of sudden flood on my land in two week’s time.

Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.

Stay strong and cheerful.

#wednesdaywalk created by @tattoodjay