Thailand

"Perhaps, locals will have to relocate," said Robert Mather, head of Southeast Asia Group and also project manager of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Building Resilience to Climate Change Impacts-Coastal Southeast Asia (BCR). Living on the coast of Trat's Klong Yai district, Papassorn Sunet said she had to elevate her house twice already in the face of soaring seawater level. At a…

Dr Natarika Wayuparb, Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management (TGO)'s deputy executive director, said the Kingdom should pioneer new policies by addressing climate change problems at a serious level. "Thailand needs to make a serious attempt to show we have the right policy to ensure [addressing] climate change issues are moved from a local level into an international one," she said. "We have seen good examples from…

Most rivers, canals and reservoirs have remained unchanged for decades, merely undergoing periodic dredging under a vast range of agencies - from the Royal Irrigation Department, Interior Ministry and Defence Ministry to local administrative bodies. But in the light of drastic changes in our climate which have resulted in both longer droughts and excessive rainfall, we need fresh investment for water management and improvement works…

A floods working group, made up of the government, local companies, civil society and community leaders, has set up closed-circuit television cameras to monitor canals, and has made real-time information on rainfall and water levels available on a website. It has also helped local communities map the city’s water flows, produced a handbook on how to combat floods, and established an insurance fund to help…

Robert Mather, head of the Southeast Asia Group for the International Union for Conservation of Nature, said climate change was an immediate problem. He said that at the current rate of energy consumption, the average temperature was expected to rise in Thailand and there would be more concentrated periods of rain, which could cause floods, in the near future. The Media Alliance said news outlets…