1. Water-related disasters in Asia

1-1   Floods in Thailand 

 -  By late November, over 650 deaths were reported due to the flood disaster for about four months. Ayutthaya has the highest death toll where 139 people were killed by flood, following by Nakhon Sawan, of which 72 people were killed.

-  In order to support the early recovery from the inundation especially in the Industrial Parks in Thailand, the Government of Japan decided to dispatch 10 drain pump vehicles and Japan Disaster Relief (JDR) Expert Team to help the drainage works. By November 27, the drainage work has completed in the Rojana Industrial Park, and JDR Team moved to another inundated areas to continue the drainage works.

-  Thai and Japanese governments have started to revise the flood master plan of the Chao Phraya River basin, which was established in 1999. The revised plan is expected to clarify why and how the serious damage occurred due to this year’s flood and to give suggestions on more effective measures to prevent disasters of the future.

1-2  Floods in VietNam

-  Continual heavy rains caused large-scale floods in Vietnam's central provinces, which killed at least 100 people as of middle of November. About 30,000 people from Thua Thien-Hue and Quang Nam provinces were evacuated to safe areas.

-  It is said that roads had been seriously damaged and the bill for the clean-up in the province was likely to top 100bn dong (5 million US dollars).

2. Updated information about the Great East Japan Earthquake

-  Eight months passed after the Great East Japan Earthquake, Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectural government elaborated to establish their disaster recovery / reconstruction plans for next 10 years.

-  Each plan was established based on several general principles such as ensuring safety, recovery focusing individual citizens and revitalization of the industry.

For more details, click the link below: 

(Iwate prefecture)

http://www.pref.iwate.jp/~hp0212/fukkou_net/fukkoukeikaku_english.html

(Miyagi prefecture)

http://www.pref.miyagi.jp/seisaku/sinsaihukkou/keikaku/keikakugaiyou_en.pdf

(Fukushima prefecture)

http://wwwcms.pref.fukushima.jp/pcp_portal/PortalServlet?DISPLAY_ID=DIRECT&NEXT_DISPLAY_ID=U000004&CONTENTS_ID=24828

3. Information on IDI-related activities

3-1   Support to JICA training and dialogue program – Adaptation to Climate change- 

-  JICA Tsukuba’s training and dialogue program ‘‘Adaptation to Climate Change” was held from October 2 to 29 with thirteen participants. IDI supported its implementation.

-  This program aims to consider and to elaborate Action Plan on strengthening of the

policy-making/implementation system of adaptation to climate change based on impact assessment and vulnerability assessment in participants’ respective organizations.

-  The lectures were organized to understand international flame work, impact assessment, vulnerability assessment, Japan’s policy, Japanese measures and so on.

-  At the field trip, the participants learned the practical approaches for water related disaster prevention and water resource management at Naramata and Yagisawa dams, Watarase reservoir and Edogawa river office. They also visited natural energy generating plant such as solar, wind and biomass power plant that are considered as a useful mitigation measure to climate change of the future.

3-2   Participation in the ESCAP/WMO Typhoon Committee-Integrated Workshop on “Damage Assessment Methodology and Pre-Assessment of Typhoon Landfall Impact”

-  The workshop was held from 7 to 11 November, in Nha Trang, Viet Nam, organized by the Typhoon Committee Secretariat (TCS) and the National Hydro Meteorological Service (NHMS) of Viet Nam.

-  In the keynote lectures, Mr. Ikeda (Director of Water and Environment Research Department, IDI) presented Global Flood Alert System. In his presentation, the correlation between ground observed precipitation and satellite monitoring precipitation was studied, and case study of estimation of probable precipitation with return period were introduced for some of the river basins in Viet Nam. Further the precipitation in the Chao Phraya River basin was estimated by using the satellite monitoring, where serious flood disaster occurred this year.

-  In the parallel session of Working Group on Hydrology, progress of hazard mapping project for sediment-related disasters was reported. And development and application of flood disaster preparedness indices were presented as one of the key projects initiated by Japanese participants.