Highlights
The global climate change has definitely contributed to the recent unprecedented flooding taking place in Thai south, Thai Deputy Chief Negotiator for UNFCCC Dr. Sangchan Limjirakan said Sunday.
Being an expert on environmental and climate issues, Dr. Sangchan acted as a deputy head of Thai delegations attending the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change UNFCCC’s workshops which will be arranged in Bangkok on April 3-8.
The deputy chief negotiator reassured that the devastative floods and landslides which had battered the region since March 23 had been caused by the climate crisis.
“You know that in southern of Thailand right now, about one million people got affected from this natural disaster. I expect that almost 500,000 households got impacted. We can assume that this impact comes from climate change affect. This climate-related disaster has never been witnessed in Thailand before,” she said.
Dr. Sangchan revealed to Xinhua a shocking amount of rainfall measured in the South during the last four months.
“Just only four months, the total rainfall in southern Thailand is over 2,200 mm per year, comparing with 2,700 mm in the last whole year, it is very unusual rainfall. This is certainly a climate-related disaster which has already taken place in Thailand. ”
“That’s what we call climate variability. Nobody knows in advance,” she added.
On Sunday, the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department reported that a total of 41 people in southern provinces were confirmed to be killed by the flash floods and mudslides from March 23 to April 2. Ten provinces hit by major flooding include Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phatthalung, Surat Thani, Trang, Chumphon, Songkhla, Krabi and Phangnga, Satun and Narathiwat.
