‘Prits’ visited Nong Khai, pointing out 3 major issues for rehabilitation and relief after the flood receded. The relief money must be delivered to the people quickly and fairly, local governments must be injected with money to accelerate the city’s restoration, and mental health care must be provided to those affected so that they do not have to face stress and anxiety alone.
Mr. Phrits Wacharasindhu, MP for the Prachachon Party, along with his team, went to Nong Khai Province to monitor the situation and collect information about the flooding. In the morning, they went to listen to the problems of the people affected by the flood in Tha Bo District before going to help clean and restore the school and listen to suggestions from the people and volunteers in Sri Chiang Mai District.
Prisht said that although Nong Khai’s water level has receded, the flooding incident between September 15-21 caused damage to a total of 6 districts. Last week, the cabinet approved some rehabilitation measures, totaling a budg
et of 3,045 million baht. He believes that the rehabilitation measures can be divided into 3 main issues.
The first is ‘financial recovery’, the most urgent issue of which is to get the relief money into the hands of the people as soon as possible because the relief money is not only important in the dimension of ‘compensating for the damages’ that have already occurred, but is also important in helping the people ‘get back on their feet’ and start earning income again.
Prisht said that during the visit, he met people who were cooking at home to sell through the application. During this time, they would not have any income until their houses were repaired and new equipment was purchased. He also met people who were gardening, who would not be able to replant if the large amount of water that had accumulated was not pumped out. For this group of people, every day that passed without receiving any assistance was another day that they still could not return to earning a living as before.
Although the Cabinet
has already approved the initial compensation of 5,000-9,000 baht per household, including the compensation of 230,000 baht for houses damaged by more than 70%, many people I talked to still do not know how to proceed, and some areas have not had local government officials come to provide advice
.
Therefore, the government has the following proposals: 1. Consider sending the compensation money to the people as soon as possible. For the initial compensation of 5,000-9,000 baht per household, the government should use satellite images from the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) to overlay coordinates on the world map (Geocoding) to automatically compensate victims via the government application immediately, to reduce the steps and burden of paperwork that are too complicated. For the home repair money, the government should immediately provide some repair money (e.g. 10,000 baht) for every house affected by the disaster. Then, after the damage survey and assessment is complete, t
he remaining amount will be paid according to the actual situation.
2. Increase the budget for local governments to use in issuing policies to restore and compensate people in their areas more fully, because the local compensation mechanism tends to be faster. And there are more details that take into account the specific factors of each area.
3. Increase and negotiate a mechanism for providing 0% interest loans to disaster victims to use for business rehabilitation or to buy equipment necessary for their own occupations as soon as possible.
4. Accelerate the dissemination of all benefits and related procedures to disaster victims.
5. Consider transferring the authority to declare disaster areas and manage related budgets to local governments in the future to enable more timely use of funds. If there is concern that disaster areas will be declared inconsistent with the facts, establish a mechanism for provincial governors to submit a proposal to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation to revi
ew, confirm, or refrain from declaring disaster areas that local governments have already declared.
Prisht continued that in addition to quickly reaching the victims, the government must also determine the compensation amount to be fair to all cases. One example that needs to be carefully considered is the government’s initial compensation measure, which has different levels for each case (5,000 / 7,000 / 9,000 baht). Although the duration of the flood is the main criterion for determining the compensation level, the severity of the damage may not only be related to the duration, but may also be related to the nature of the flood. For example, if it is a flash flood with mud or topsoil flowing down, the damage will be high, even if the flooding period is less than 7 days, or in some cases, the flooding may not even last a day but the damage is very high, so only the minimum amount of assistance will be provided.
Therefore, the government should consider strengthening the criteria for determining the level o
f compensation that takes into account more factors, by involving local governments to be most consistent with reality, and should review the criteria for determining compensation for agricultural areas to be consistent with the actual cost of damage.
The second major issue is ‘urban renewal’. Pris said that although Nong Khai city area was not damaged as much as other areas (such as Chiang Rai), many service areas that were damaged, such as schools or childcare centres, may have to stop providing services. For example, Ban Mo Community School, where he joined the clean-up, may have to close for 2-3 weeks. Even if it reopens, some school buildings are damaged and need to be urgently repaired to prevent accidents to students.
Therefore, it is proposed that the government should increase the budget for local governments and/or related agencies to repair public services such as roads, lighting, schools and sub-district health-promoting hospitals (sub-district health-promoting hospitals), including measures to
revive the local economy, such as stimulating tourism through tax deductions for ‘flood-reduced cities’ in a manner similar to what was used to stimulate tourism in ‘secondary cities’.
The third major issue is ‘mental health rehabilitation.’ Prisht said that studies from many countries clearly indicate that disaster victims tend to face more severe mental health problems than the general population, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression. Although some stress and anxiety may be related to financial problems and losses, monitoring, screening, and caring for mental health risks in all disaster victims is a task that should not be neglected.
Therefore, it is proposed that the government should develop skills and support tools for citizens to become ‘mental health frontliners’ who have basic knowledge in observing symptoms of mental health in people around them, have basic mental health skills such as listening, encouragement, and counseling, and have access to basic risk assessm
ent tools that can be used further. In addition, there should be sufficient budget and personnel for mental health hotlines or other channels to receive help from mental health experts.
Source: Thai News Agency