Preparing for floods in northeastern Thailand
- Thailand
ENTRY DATE: 09.03.2012 | LAST UPDATE: 09.03.2012
SCALE:
- Community Level
TARGET AREA:
- Rural
BEST PRACTICE IN:
- Capacity Building
- Research and Development
KEY SECTOR:
- Disaster Risk Reduction and Management
FUNDING AMOUNT:
Description of Intervention
• Early warning and preparedness, including rice stocking and storage at a high place for the household;
• Use of fishing equipment appropriate to the conditions in the rivers and other wetlands;
• Adjustment of farming practices including varying of the crop calendar and planting suitable rice varieties that allow for early harvest; and
• Conducting alternative livelihood activities, such as migration to Bangkok for work.
Problems to be Addressed
The Lower Songkhram River Basin is a floodplain that often experiences widespread flooding. This causes a large amount of damage to rice paddies and housing, resulting in food and income insecurity.
Aims
Understanding how climate risks currently threaten communities, their coping strategies, and how villagers perceive their climate to be changing
Objectives
• To document the frequency and intensity of floods and droughts;
• To attain perceived changes in these patterns;
• To identify the impacts of floods and droughts on rural livelihoods;
• To identify local coping strategies; and
• To consider the viability of current coping strategies under changing climate conditions.
How it fits into the EbA concept
The villagers in the study sites have undertaken various activities to reduce climate risks (particularly flooding) and maintaining the family’s basic needs. One of the methods by Ka villagers is the sustainable management of water resources for making water available for dry-season rice planting. Due to increased frequency of flooding, they adjusted their rice farming practices from wet-season to dry-season planting. This practice, however, requires irrigation during very dry years. In order to harvest and store water throughout the year, the villagers built pumps to get water or/and dug ponds. About 30% of the villagers now own multi-use ponds for dry-season irrigation for rice planting, breeding fish and provision of water to livestock. The adoption of multi-purpose ponds enhances the availability of water resource for diverse livelihood activities, enabling the villagers to maintain their food security and household income sources during unfavorable climate conditions, whether floods or droughts.