Abstract
In 2011, Thailand experienced the worst flood crisis in 50 years. The flood caused the nation THB1.4 trillion (USD 42 billion) in economic losses and THB1.5 trillion (USD 45 billion) in rehabilitation and reconstruction costs. This chapter focuses on social and political adaptation and transformation after the flood event. The first part discusses Mark Pelling’s (2011) framework ‘adaptation as transformation’. The second part sets out the reasons why the flood in 2011 was so damaging economically and politically. In the third part, this chapter applies Pelling’s framework to social learning and socio-political transformation after the flood. This chapter asks if Thai society was transformed by the flood, if the Yingluck Shinawatra government (2011–2014) learned from its mistakes and if it initiated the establishment of institutions relating to natural disaster management. The Thai Military played a significant role in the flood relief programme. Ironically, the idea of sustainable development in managing natural disasters was interrupted by the coup in 2014. The military government paid no attention to floods but focused only on drought in agricultural areas during the dry season. On the other hand, Thai communities relied heavily on social capital for adaptation and utilised the new online technology to help cope with floods. This chapter concludes that this event transformed Thai society from the social perspective but not the political one. Transformative adaptation can be observed as Thai local villagers rely deeply on social capital in their local communities and informative learning via online technology to adapt to the flood. In contrast, the Thai government did not learn from its mistakes as the political change did not occur constructively. Floods still occurred nationwide, whilst the government was overwhelmed with the preparations for the royal cremation ceremony for King Rama IX (1927–2016) and underestimated the impact of the monsoon season in 2017.
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Notes
- 1.
Thailand’s annual rainfall in 2011 was the highest (about 24 per cent above average) in the 61-year (1951–2011) record. Between January and October 2011, the average rainfall was 1781 mm. This was the highest on record, and was 35 per cent higher than the 50-year average (Poaponsakorn et al. 2015).
- 2.
In 2011, five tropical monsoons (Haima in June, Nock-Ten in July, Haitang in September, Nesat and Nelgae in September to October) had some effects on Thailand’s rainfall. Only Nock-Ten hit Thailand on 31 July 2011.
- 3.
For example, the Royal Irrigation Department (RID) is under the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation is under the Ministry of Interior and the Department of Water Resources (DWR) is under the Ministry of Environment and NationalResources (Netherlands Embassy in Bangkok 2016).
- 4.
In addition, the Navy provided 2510 barges, ten cargo ships, and a number of other boats including ‘eight medical units, eight counselling teams and three aircraft assigned to fly relief-related flights’ to help flood victims (The Nation2011a).
- 5.
This storybook was also translated into Burmese and Karen to educate communities in the areas along the Thailand and Myanmar border.
- 6.
This article of Thailand’s interim constitution allows Prime Minister to have ‘absolute power to give any order deemed necessary to “strengthen public unity and harmony” or to prevent any act that undermines public peace’ (The Straits Times2015).
- 7.
It was estimated that the average rainfall was 40 mm/hour which was not considered extremely heavy. The flood occurred because of the drainage blockage (BBC Thai2017).
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Khaikham, L., James, H. (2019). Socio-Political Transformation After the 2011 Floods in Thailand. In: James, H. (eds) Population, Development, and the Environment. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2101-6_14
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