The government will set up a committee to oversee restoration of the country after the flood recedes, but in the meantime people just have to accept the reality that they must continue living with the flood for now, Science and Technology Minister Plodprasop Surasawadi said on Thursday.
Speaking at the Flood Relief Operations Centre (Froc), Mr Plodprasop said that it was own assessment that the people in Bangkok and surrounding provinces would have to live with the existing flood situation for at least another two weeks.
Floodwater in Pathum Thani and Nonthaburi was expected to gradually subside after Nov 7. Since the area on the western side of the Chao Phraya River is low lying it has fewer obstructions and it has taken more water than the area east of Bangkok.
Mr Plodprasop said the government was setting up a committee to be chaired by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on the restoration of the country as a whole after the flood has receded.
The offices of the Bureaucracy Development Committee and the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) would draw up a plan for the committee to consider and implement.
But Thais would have to accept that climate change is occurring and it will cause the rainy season to come one or two months earlier than usual.
"From now on Thailand will have 25-50 per cent more rain, or an additional 50,000 - 100,000 million cubic metres of rainwater per year. Normally, the country has about 200,000 million cubic metres of rainwater per year.
"Because of climate change, we will have to amend the agriculture calendar. We may have to plant rice sooner and look for new rice strains suitable for the changing weather conditions," he said.
The science minister said the tourism caldendar would have to be also adjusted.
New houses built on low land should be on stilts with open ground floors.
The Science and Technology Ministry had finished drawing up a design for "amphibious" houses which can float in water and it would soon be presented to the public.
In the future, there should be legislation to control land reclamation.
Roads on the western and eastern sides of Bangkok should be elevated to allow floodwater to flow with fewer obstructions into the sea.
To prevent water from flowing into Bangkok, floodways should be built to facilitate the flow of water into the Gulf of Thailand.
The most expensive form of a floodway is to dig a large river, he said.
The cheapest form of building a floodway, which is being used in Japan, is by renting people's land from Bang Sai district of Ayutthaya down to Khlong Dan district of Samut Prakan. The land, after adjustments, could serve as a floodway in the wet season and a recreation area in the dry season, Mr Plodprasop said.
The minister also said it was now time to have a ministry to specially handle water management. The ministry might comprise departments of water drainage, water diversion, waterworks and water for industry.
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