The environment in the news monday, 26 May 2008
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Disaster in waitingActive seismic faultlines in Kanchanaburi become a major source of worry, writes Piyarach Chongcharoen in Kanchanaburi The recent natural disasters in Burma and China are warning signs that there is no room for complacency in Thailand as many areas in the kingdom are vulnerable to heavy flooding and earthquakes, making disaster preparedness a national priority. Geological experts have come forward to educate the public about the dangers of earthquakes which have increased in frequency in the North, the West, the South and in the Andaman sea in recent years. Many geologists have expressed serious concern about Sri Sawat and Three Pagodas - the two active faultlines in Kanchanaburi. The focus has always been on the western province bordering Burma because it has two of the biggest dams in the country - Srinakarind dam in Sri Sawat district and the Vajiralongkorn dam in Thong Pha Phum district. Both sit on the two faultlines which are branches of Sakaeng - another active faultline in Burma. Smith Dharmasarojana, former director of the National Disaster Warning Centre (NDWC), said the Sri Sawat faultline is 500km long, running along the Mae Klong and the Kwai Yai rivers all the way to the Thai-Burmese border, while the Three Pagodas faultline is 250km long, running from the Kwai Noi river to the border. "We need an efficient early warning system to prepare for possible disasters," Mr Smith said. He said money, or the lack of it, should not be allowed to get in the way of disaster preparedness. Investing in an efficient early warning system would be worth the money spent if one comes to think of how many lives it could save if there is a natural disaster, he said. Mr Smith said whenever there is an earthquake, even if it is just a small one, information should be readily made available to the public. The Srinakarind dam, also known as Chao Nen dam, was built by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) across the Kwai Yai river. It is the country's biggest rock-fill dam with an earth core, and is 140 metres high and 610 metres wide. Its reservoir has a holding area of 10,880 square kilometres with a maximum capacity of 17.7 billion cubic metres of water. Its structure is designed to withstand only a small earthquake. It provides water for generating electricity and irrigation under the Mae Klong Yai agricultural scheme. The Vajiralongkorn dam, formerly known as Khao Laem dam, sits across the Kwai Noi river. The first rock-fill dam in Thailand, it is 92 metres high and 1,019 metres in width, and its reservoir space is 3,720 square kilometres. It has a holding capacity of 8.86 billion cubic metres of water. Straddling the Thong Pha Phum and Sangkhla Buri districts, the dam serves the same purposes as the Srinakarind dam. Rumours about cracks in the two dams have regularly emerged since the tsunami that struck the six Andaman provinces in the South in 2004, leaving thousands of people dead and missing. The Egat has come forward many times since then to allay public fears, saying the two dams are strong enough to withstand more quakes. Provincial authorities have also given assurances that plans are in place to meet any emergency. But locals have complained that they still have no idea how they would escape a disaster if there was a powerful earthquake. Thamrong Thawatkhwanpracha, a former Egat engineer who designed the Srinakarind dam and supervised its construction, said in a study conducted in 1995 that if the dam breaks up, 65 districts in 13 provinces would be flooded. The study was submitted to the National Human Rights Commission in 2005. It says an earthquake in 1983 caused a 30cm-wide crack in the dam. It was also found that the dam's foundation is susceptible, as it has a poor weathered rock and shear zone. However, the Egat assured that the dam's structure can resist an earthquake of up to 7.5 magnitude on the Richter scale. But Prinya Nutalai, a geologist, has argued that the dam would only be safe from an earthquake of such a magnitude if the quake's epicentre is at least 500km away from it. As it happens, the dam is located near the two active faultlines. In this case, the possibility was there that a much smaller earthquake than the 7.5 could crack or even break the dam, he said. Kanchanaburi governor Amnart Phakarat said an efficient early warning system was necessary to alert the local people. Regular evacuation drills are also needed to prepare for possible disasters. The Egat earlier organised a simulation of likely situations involving an earthquake and the breaking up of a dam. It was calculated that water from the Srinakarind reservoir would take about 10 hours to reach Muang district. The time was thought to be enough for evacuating people to safety, the governor said. However, he was more concerned about people living downstream near the two dams - those in Sri Sawat district - who would have only an hour or two to dash to safety. More than 300 villages would be quickly flooded if a dam collapses. The warning centre has been asked to urgently install three early warning towers in the flood-prone areas, Mr Amnart said. http://www.bangkokpost.com/240508_News/24May2008_news93.php Back to Menu _________________________________________________________________________ REGIONAL OFFICE FOR NORTH AMERICA (RONA) MEDIA UPDATE THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS Friday 23 May 2008 
UNEP or UN in the News
General Environment News
More sharks added to threatened species list Study finds six species, and one ray, merit inclusion on 'red list' MSNBC Thursday May. 22, 2008 BERLIN - A team of fisheries researchers on Thursday reported data that has led to seven species of sharks and rays being added to the global list of threatened species. Six more species of shark are under enough pressure to make the "red list" of threatened species maintained by the World Conservation Union, which revealed the results at a conference of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity in Bonn. Four of those will be listed as "vulnerable." The pelagic stingray was also added following the research into the status of 21 species of sharks and rays. Sonja Fordham, co-author of the study and a director of the Shark Alliance, a Belgium-based advocacy group, said that the sharks studied were chosen because they were most often harvested by fishermen on the high seas. "Fishermen who usually go after other species are targeting sharks, looking to develop new markets," she told The Associated Press. While some governments have recently introduced fishing regulations for sharks, there are no catch limits for sharks in international waters, she said. That lets fishermen exploit shark populations at a moment when they are increasingly valuable. Demand for shark fin soup is growing in China, and Europeans have developed a taste for shark meat, the report found, noting that the thresher and shortfin mako shark species were among those targeted because of demand for their meat. Regulations on sharks have lagged behind those for other fish, she suggested, because sharks are perceived as dangerous and because they are traditionally less desirable to fishermen than widely harvested species like tuna. The paper appears in the latest edition of the journal "Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems." Sharks and rays are particularly vulnerable to overfishing because most take many years to become sexually mature and have relatively few offspring. "Fishery managers and regional, national and international officials have a real obligation to improve this situation," lead author Nicholas Dulvy, who is based at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, said in a statement. "We are losing species at a rate 10 to 100 times greater than historic extinction rates." The Associated Press contributed to this report. URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24781271/
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