Throughout much of world history, the advent of the rainy seasons has been seen as a positive. Indeed, in ancient Egypt, the arrival of floodwaters down the Nile River were a vital part of the cycle of life, as those floodwaters brought with them the fertile silt that would line the riverbanks the rest of the year, allowing farmers to plant and cultivate crops. The Nile river god and the sun god, Ra, were the two primary deities of that culture – if they did not deliver, then people would starve. Throughout much of Asia, the monsoon season – characterized by long periods of intense rain – is an important part of the climate cycle. While the monsoons are not particularly convenient, they bring the water that will provide sustenance to the ecosystem during the dry parts of the year – which, for Thailand, happens between November and the end of February. The monsoon season, which runs from the end of June until the end of October, on and off, provides much of the water that the land will need for the rest of the year. Most Western countries do not experience a monsoon season, and so Western-style infrastructure, including buildings and utility systems, are not designed to handle that sort of intense weather. Bringing Western-style amenities to Asia has elevated the quality of life for many of the people who live there. However, when climatic extremes take hold, widespread interruptions of services and utilities take place. The current state of Thailand, much of which is still recovering from the heavy monsoon flooding from this year’s season, is an excellent example of what can happen when a region’s infrastructure is not designed with indigenous conditions in mind.
One of the most significant examples of the effects of Thailand’s flooding in 2011 is the ability of factories to generate products for consumers. At the present time, the country’s main products include hard disk drives and other electronics, as well as automobile manufacturing for international companies. However, because of all of the flooding, factory output fell by 36 percent in October. The automotive industry was particularly affected, as the factories were dependent on the arrival of parts from other countries to complete the job. As a result, automotive production plummeted by 61.3 percent (“Thailand Factory Output”). Hard disk drive production fell by 52.4 percent, and overall electronic production was down by 45.5 percent. Interestingly, this is only supposed to slow the growth of the Thai economy for the fiscal year 2011, as an initial estimate of 2.72 percent growth may fall to only 1.7 percent. The crisis in production shows what can happen when a region that is not climatically or geographically designed for easy shipment of parts falls victim to Mother Nature. Even with modern roads, Thailand is not the easiest place to navigate during normal monsoon seasons. During 2011, when flooding went past 50-year records, the roads suffered – and warehouses remain flooded, which means that even if the parts can show up to the factories, that no one can receive the parts – and the workers cannot operate the factory to turn those parts into products, assuming the workers can even commute to their jobs.
Speaking of those jobs, of course, when factories cannot open for business, employers can often no longer afford the salaries of their employees. While the Thai unemployment rate (1.8 percent at last calculation) is much smaller than that in some countries around the world currently more intensely affected by the global recession, it could jump as high as 2.3 percent (Suwannakij), which would represent a 35 percent jump in unemployment in a small country. At the current time, though, that joblessness is expected to even itself out by the end of the first quarter in 2012.
The floods in Thailand also have exposed the ways in which industrialization and development have affected the ability of indigenous species to find and maintain a serviceable habitat – and have also exposed the underside of the exotic animal trade in the country. As the flood finally begins to recede, there are some creatures waiting for residents to return to their homes: poisonous snakes and crocodiles. Many Thai still lack plumbing that goes into a sewer system, and so they use outhouses. One young Thai woman, returning to her home, found a crocodile waiting when she went out to go to the bathroom, and now refuses to enter one of these outbuildings (Associated Press). While many crocodiles and snakes have left their former habitats because of development, there are also many crocodiles in Thailand because it is a hub for the breeding and sale of exotic animals – including these unfriendly reptiles. There are more than 3,000 croc farms throughout Thailand, and the flooding has sent them around the country, looking for more hospitable living conditions. Many exotic animal owners had brought illegal species onto their property, and simply left them in cages when they evacuated to escape the flood. Now that the waters are going away, those animals that have escaped are making their mark on the countryside. Whether the results of the flood will lead to a greater regulation of the illegal animal trade in Thailand, or whether recovering from the more catastrophic results of the flood will occupy the attention of the national government, remains to be seen.
One benefit, over the long term, of the flooding in Thailand should be an improvement in its water management system. After the floods began to subside, the Chinese prime minister reached out to offer assistance in water management – particularly in the area of accelerating the flow of water out of the country’s wettest regions (Songwanich). China’s water issues generally have more to do with drought than flooding, but the concept of flooding, but water management in those two areas has a lot of overlap, particularly in the area of well and reservoir construction and design, which has become a Chinese specialty in the past five decades. Such giant hydraulic undertakings as the South-to-North Project, which takes water from rivers in the south of China and brings it to the drier northern part of the country, have given the country’s engineers the knowhow to help with the large-scale removal of water when necessary. The Chinese engineers are entering the country to help the Thai authorities develop irrigation techniques that will draw the floodwaters out of the affected territories and keep floodwaters in future storms from building up as quickly, as they will drain away more efficiently. In other areas of water management, including flood control, the Thai plan to bring in experts from the Netherlands (much of which is below sea level, which presents significant challenges in the area of flood control) and the United States.
Another change that could take place as a result of the 2011 flooding is a change in the country’s capital. Bangkok is similar to the Italian city of Venice in that it contains a network of canals and is slowly sinking into the sea. The loss of dry land around Bangkok is taking place at an even faster rate than it is in Venice, though; by 2070, Bangkok is on the list of the ten cities most likely to succumb to flooding and lost elevation. Some of this has to do with plate tectonics, but most of it has to do with human behavior, as excessive development has covered up open plots of land that, in decades past, would have absorbed much of the excess water. According to an editorial in the Bangkok Post, the current capital city was built without much urban planning at all and has been allowed to expand more at whim than in response to a particular plan. Because of this, the writer argues, a new capital city is needed – and planned capitals are nothing new, as Washington D.C., Brasilia and Canberra were all designed to be the capital of their respective countries, well after the founding of those countries. They were clearly laid out and designed and serve their functions effectively, according to the editorial.
Many different factors affect – and are affected by – a country’s geography. Because of the population challenges in Asia, it is a region that will affect the other six continents significantly over the next century. As its population gains access to automobiles, the energy demand will have as much as an effect on the price of oil as any conservation attempts that the United States and other Western nations make. The dependence that many other regions of the world have on Asia as far as manufacturing – not just cars and electronics but a wide variety of other products as well – mean that the events that impact Asian nations have ripple effects around the entire globe. The challenges that industrial and political leaders face, going forward, inside and outside Asia will revolve, in large part, around the events in the region. When a country is as susceptible to the ravages of nature as are many of the countries in southern Asia, the whole world will be paying attention when events like tsunamis, earthquakes and unusually intense monsoon seasons hit. The potential cost does include human fatalities and basic infrastructure needs for the residents of Thailand and the surrounding countries; however, the potential costs also include interruption of manufacturing processes that can send the entire global economy into recession. Behind the headlines of the Thai floods are larger events and trends that will influence the Asian and global economies into 2012 and far beyond.
Works Cited
Associated Press. “As Thailand’s Floods Slowly Recede, Crocodiles and Snakes Give
Residents a Creepy Welcome Home.” Washington Post 27 November 2011.
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“High Time for Building a New Capital.” Bangkok Post 28 November 2011. Retrieved 28
November 2011 from
http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/economics/268201/high-time-for-building-
a-new-capital
Suwannakij, Supunnabul. “Thai Jobless Rate May Rise to as High as 2.3% on Flood.”
Bloomberg Businessweek 28 November 2011. Retrieved 28 November 2011
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Songwanich, Suwatchai. “China’s Expertise in Water Management and Lessons for
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management-and-lessons-f-30170750.html
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