Several parts of Asia have yet again felt Mother Nature’s wrath with the recent and devastating floods. Hitting 61 out of the 76 islands, Thailand has been the worst hit, with a massive 300 fatalities. Cambodia’s rising death toll has just reached 247, with further deaths in both Vietnam and thePhilippines.
With so much of the area still battling rising floodwaters, the two countries will continue to rely on international aid , especially those from the US and China.
Even though the military is still working tirelessly in the early stages ongoing evacuations and recovery efforts, damage estimates have already been made and they are severe.
Latest predictions show that reconstruction efforts to the country of Thailand are in at approximately $3.3 billion dollars, up from the original estimate of $2.6 billion.
By and large this enormous recovery cost is due to the fact that so much of the country’s industrial areas have been completely overwhelmed by water, adding a further economic loss of $4.9 billion to the Thai GDP.
Industrial areas hit the worst include Navankorn. The production community’s resilience defences were not great enough to stop the overwhelming floodwater from reaching their 200 factories, potentially affecting the 20,000 workers employed there.
While there are still reports of major parts of the country without electricity,Bangkok, including the airport facilities have been running as usual (due for the most part to extensive flood walls) aiding in the relief efforts.
The protection of Bangkok and further major Thai city’s has been one of the main focuses of the military efforts. The key effort has been to channel water through complex systems in order to stave off issues in areas of dense populations, such as the capital’s nine million.
The areas worst hit spread acrossAsiaare still in the early stages of emotional recovery, with the preservation of life taking precedence over rebuild at this stage.
The main issues they, and the rest of the world, will face after the dust has settled, is the incredibly high economic toll the loss of industry will have.
Thailand has faced the rebuild prospect in the not too distant past,throughout the horrific Oceania Tsunami, and one of the greatest tragedies is that intensive resilience planning was perhaps not at its premium. Perhaps if it was, Thailand, and the rest of the world, may have been confronted with a very different outcome.
