Uttaradit landslide -- another case of mai pen rai

A preventable disaster repeated

Govt incompetence and a lack of simple public awareness result in yet another round of needless deaths

At press time, 30 people were confirmed dead and some 100 others reported missing in the aftermath of the catastrophic mudslides and flash-floods that struck in the northern province of Uttaradit in the early hours of Tuesday. And the death toll is expected to rise, with rescue workers continuing to search for more bodies of victims trapped underneath debris or tonnes of mud that was swept down the mountain slopes to engulf low-lying communities.

The Civil Defence Agency of the Interior Ministry, military units and relief organisations all rushed to the affected areas to provide assistance to thousands of residents who were made homeless by the tragedy. Utmost attention must be paid to helping these people come to grips with their grief over the loss of their loved ones and property, pull themselves back up, rebuild their homes and resume their lives to the greatest extent possible. And the emergency relief must be followed up with more comprehensive assistance, in order to ensure that the survivors are able to recover from their horrific ordeal. The post-emergency assistance could involve resettlement to safer ground, so as to avoid any more problems with mudslides in the event the ravaged areas are deemed unsafe for further human settlement.

Meanwhile, the Mineral Resources Department made the shocking revelation that most of those who perished in Uttaradit could have been saved if only local officials had followed existing precautionary safety measures stipulated for incidents of torrential rainfall and ordered the evacuation of communities located at the foot of mountains or in valleys. The department reported that all of the areas affected by mudslides and flash-floods in that province had previously been designated areas that were prone to natural disaster. And local officials had apparently received instructions in the past in regard to following clear-cut early-warning procedures, including a contingency plan for evacuating residents from high-risk areas.

The safety precautions involved community leaders and local officials closely monitoring rainfall in areas prone to mudslides and flash-floods. An early warning must be issued and evacuation under way as soon as rainfall measures more than 60mm in a 24-hour period. Rainfall surpassing 100mm in 24 hours warrants community leaders and local officials to alert the district office to prepare for a rescue operation.

It soon became clear that these safety procedures were not followed. The Meteorological Department said up to 330mm of rain was recorded in the 24 hours preceding Uttaradit's mudslides and flash-floods.

Basically, mudslides are made up of rock, earth, uprooted trees and other debris flowing down a slope like liquid. They can occur on almost any terrain given the right conditions of soil, rainfall and slope angle. In this country, mudslides are usually triggered by heavy rains and flash-floods. Geophysical conditions and human factors like deforestation and poorly managed land use on mountain slopes or in valleys combine to make mudslides possible and often with devastating results, as seen on Tuesday morning.

The Uttaradit disaster is reminiscent of a similar one that befell Phetchabun's Lom Sak district that killed more than 100 people in August 2001. And an even deadlier one in 1988 in Nakhon Si Thammarat's Phipun district, in which 317 people perished.

Following the Phetchabun mudslide, the Mineral Resources Department drew up a detailed map of disaster-prone areas in 51 provinces throughout the Kingdom, complete with detailed information about specific locations, names of villages, districts and provinces and precautionary measures that must be taken by community leaders and local officials.

The Uttaradit disaster should serve as a reminder that having good preventive measures against natural disaster and contingency plans for emergencies is not in itself enough. The Mineral Resources Department, in collaboration with other government agencies, should train community leaders and local officials so they are able to ensure that all standard procedures are followed strictly and consistently - and with no exceptions. Provincial and district-level officials must provide sufficient oversight to make sure that local officials and other leaders always do what they are supposed to.

The provincial officials responsible for this man-made disaster should be arrested and taken straight to jail. Laziness, corruption, and deft manipulation by the local poltical mafia of both rural ignorance and the outmoded concept of 'mai pen rai' are the root causes of this catastrophe.