Waiting for the water

Based in Bangkok, New Zealander Justin Barnett is the managing director of Grayling Thailand, a public relations company with offices in more than 40 countries. Though he's worked in Thailand for 12 years, and has previously had to make the call on how to operate in unusual circumstances, the current flooding has created a different set of challenges. Barnett talks about the uncertainty and frustrations of trying to maintain a business in the Thai capital as the floodwaters close in.

My first inkling that the annual floods this year might present special problems for Bangkok came from our landlord.

Scurrying into the office in early October, he warned the city would be awash within weeks. Convinced that disaster was imminent, he outlined his plan to sandbag the building, move the lift to the top floor (ours) and cut off its power.

I was mildly amused by this episode until I arrived at the office the following Monday to find he had – true to his word – placed a wall of sandbags outside the ground floor entrance.

I made my way up to our office on the fourth floor and began the week’s work – only for our landlord to again enter the office to explain power to the lift would be cut off at 2.00pm.

A quick discussion with the team followed, where we decided it would be safer and easier to work from home until the situation became clearer. We had adopted a similar response last year, when civil unrest brought central Bangkok to a halt. We had found we could still operate reasonably effectively from our homes.

So we have been working for the last two weeks from home, attending client meetings, and generally trying to carry on as normal.

But the last few weeks have been anything but normal. While business in central Bangkok has continued uninterrupted, the daily news of floodwaters firstly inundating Nakon Sawan, then Ayutthaya, and then the large industrial estate at Navanakorn, brought the prospect of floods in central Bangkok into sharp relief. 

This is not a sudden inundation. It is the slow, relentless push of 100 million cubic metres of water that needs to drain to the sea. Local estimates suggest that, even if the planned controlled release of 10 million cubic metres through Bangkok is successfully completed, it will still take another 42 days for the remainder of the water to drain away. 

Besides the physical damage that has been caused by the extraordinary flooding, there has been the emerging human crisis as community after community has been forced to evacuate. Sadly, conflicting advice from government agencies about the seriousness of the situation, what plans were being made to divert the water, and who was likely to be affected, have increased the distrust of government predictions and assurances.

As the floodwaters closed in on the centre of the city, more and more of our team faced the prospect of their homes coming under threat. So while people have continued to work, the distraction of personal circumstances has also been building.

Perhaps in recognition of this, the government announced an extended public holiday from Oct 27 to 31, so people could prepare their homes to meet the emergency. The dates coincide with high tides that are expected to push the level of the Chai Phraya River even higher.

Many people took advantage of the break to leave Bangkok for the nearby resort centres of Pattaya, Hua Hin and Khao Yai. Some estimates say one million people left the city.

For the past week we have been waiting to see if the water will burst through the flood walls and enter the CBD. Fortunately, even with record water levels in the Chao Praya river, there were no significant breaches. But it may not be over yet. The next set of high tides are due between November 10 and 19, and November 24 and December 3.

It’s this uncertainty that has been the most frustrating aspect. Will we be flooded? How soon can we get back to work in a normal environment? How long will it take for the flooding clean up? How easy will it be to travel across town to meetings? Will our staff be able to travel safely to work?

Right now, no one knows. So we wait and hope for the best, knowing that even if nothing else goes wrong, this country will still take many months to fully recover.

Images:
1. Flooding in Ladprao, Bangkok on November 5 (image courtesy of Justin Barnett).
2. Flooding in the Thai province of Ayutthaya.

Story uploaded November 2011.