TALK OF EARLY WARNINGS RETURNS AFTER THE FACT

Thailand's natural disaster early warning and alert system faces huge challenges after experts blamed poor coordination for a slow response to the earthquake in Myanmar that saw strong tremors sweep across Thailand on March 28.

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Seree Supratid, director of the Climate Change and Disaster Centre at Rangsit University, says he was appointed by the Interior Minister as an expert adviser at the National Disaster Warning Centre (NDWC) after the earthquake.

In an interview with the Bangkok Post, Mr Seree said he had also worked at the centre in 2005 when it was just founded.

Bureaucratic loopholes

"Upon my return, I have already noticed plenty of loopholes, particularly in the work we do with partner agencies.

"Together we operate like a series circuit [in which all components are connected end-to-end to form a single path for current flow]... Information is passed from one agency to another as time gradually accrues," he said.

He suggested that it would be better if, like modern computer circuits, the agencies could operate in parallel without having to wait for each other.

"In particular, the NDWC should not wait for information from other agencies. In the event of flooding, it should not wait for information from the Meteorological Department or should other natural phenomena cause chaos, it should not wait for the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM).

"The NDWS must also look for information on its own and compare it with other agencies before issuing alerts," Mr Seree said.

"During the earthquake on March 28, text messages warning people about the earthquake took far too long to get sent," he said.

Passakorn Boonyalak, director-general of the DDPM, previously said the department had released the first batch of messages to the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) for dissemination at 2.42pm after the quake struck at 1.20pm on March 28.

The message informed recipients that it was safe to return to buildings to collect their belongings.