Special talk on the floods in Thailand with guest speaker Dr. Adri Verwey

In collaboration with the NUS, DutchCham Water Committee and the Dutch Embassy organised a public talk on the topic of the Bangkok Floods with guest speaker Dr. Adri Vewey. The former Associate Professor of Computational Hydraulics at UNESCO-IHE Delft (the Netherlands) and since 1997 operating for Deltares shared his experiences and insights on the past Bangkok floods.

The excellent speaker Dr. Verwey revealed that this job was far most the most exciting and challenging experience in his career. He and the team of specialists were accommodated at the FROC (Thai Flood Relief Operations Centre) and faced beside the enormous dimensions of the disaster also political and organizational challenges.

In the beginning the Thai authorities believed they could handle the disaster by pumping the water through the existing canals and contradictory statements were the norm within the authorities.

Dr. Verwey added to this that he was impressed and touched by the help of the army and mostly the local Thai people who built tens of kilometers sand bag walls.

The specialist team did not fear many hours of field visits and often meetings ended after midnight, but the achievements were relieving: the flood extends and flood depths were reduced and the breaking of the Choa Phaya dike was avoided. The Thai authorities were now capable of spreading better information to the public and to the corporate world.

For Dr. Verwey it was a clear statement: The Dutch specialists are now branded as the world class rescuers for water problems!  .

Source: DutchCham