Watch the interview on ASEAN Business Report, ASEAN TV
here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEKj5qZP3PM&feature=related
The full transcript of the interview can be read below.
ASEAN TV Host 1: Joining us on ASEAN Business Report right now
is Professor Said Irandoust the President of (the) Asian Institute of
Technology. Good afternoon Prof. Said.
Prof. Said Irandoust: Hello and good afternoon from
AIT.
Host 1: Professor, can you tell us what’s the situation at the
AIT right now because we have been hearing conflicting reports about
whether of not the AIT compound has been flooded. Can you give us the
correct updates?
Prof. Said Irandoust: I am very happy to let you
know that AIT is not flooded. We remain stable and fully functional. We
are not flooded.
ASEAN TV Host 2: Well that’s very good to hear. What are the
preventive measures that you have for the flood fight?
Prof. Said Irandoust: We have established a very
strong team, among the three neighboring institutions, namely AIT,
NSTDA, and Thammasat University. We have a common strong team
monitoring the situation, and also taking a number of important
preventive actions. We have been able to jointly make sure that our
three campuses remain stable and functional.
Host 1: Prof. Said, do you agree with a voice from AIT that
the proposal to let water flow naturally over the use of sandbags to
prevent water from entering Bangkok?
Prof. Said Irandoust: Actually both yes and no. I
think it is very important that there is a strategy, a plan, in place,
for the water to flow. In that sense, we need, in a number of cases,
also to build up a few dykes and sandbag barriers – but not forever. I
think of these just as temporary actions to buy some more time to plan
a more detailed more distributive water flow. So there is not too much
pressure to one certain area. That would be very difficult to handle
for any kind of place or institution. The water must actually go
somewhere and it’s very important that this is taken into
consideration; how to distribute, how to lead [and to] re-direct the
big volume of water which is coming from the north. But I don’t think
the situation of completely releasing the water to flow naturally [will
work]. We need to plan. But water needs to flow down, that’s for sure.
But it can also be redistributed in order to cover the bigger area.
That’s important to reduce the pressure to certain areas.
Host 2: Yes, professor, there have been criticisms that the
government is not doing the right job in tackling the flood problems,
how would you evaluate the performance of the government?
Prof. Said Irandoust: I believe this is a huge task
for any government. To be honest with you, and in order to be fair to
the government, this is an issue which requires long-tem strategy, [and
a] long-term plan. This is too big for any government to handle on an
ad hoc basis. What we see here today is the effect of strategies
planned of many governments in the past. Actually what is important is
to realize is that it’s a huge task for the government. We need to
learn from experiences, from the mistakes done, and after this crisis
is over we have to make sure that institutions are capable to address
these issues in the long term. We need to sit together and have a
long-term strategy. This is not the issue for politicians only. We need
to involve professionals, scientists, and make sure that there is a
long-term, stable flood master plan; an updated flood master plan
available so that politicians can work on a long-term basis. Actually,
what is very sad is that many times we work on an ad hoc basis and this
is never going to work. But it is not fair to blame the present
government because what we see today is the effect of many
decisions made or not made for many, many years in the past.
Host 2: Okay, well thank you very much professor for joining
us on ASEAN Business Report.
Prof. Said Irandoust: Thank you very much and good
afternoon to all of you. Good-bye.