It
is difficult to think about the future when you are Siriluck Santhasing, 27, a
mother of two with a third child on the way, whose family have been evacuated
twice in 10 days after losing all their possessions to rising flood waters, and
are now living on charity.
"Home" is a room that they share
with 40 others in Rajamangala Stadium, which has been turned into a shelter.
Siriluck was a daily-paid worker at EPE
Packaging at the Nava Nakorn industrial estate in Pathum Thani until the estate
came under 2m of water, forcing more than 200 factories to shut.
Her husband Yuttiphum Chadapetprasert, 31,
fortunately still has a temporary job at a supermarket.
The couple and their daughters - Nam Taan,
six, and Nam Waa, two - were initially housed with several hundred other
evacuees at Thammasat University's Rangsit campus on Bangkok's outskirts. But
the floods followed them there, cutting off electricity and water supplies and
destroying temporary barriers once thought strong enough to withstand the
waters from the north.
They are now among the more than 113,000
people forced to abandon flooded homes and seek shelter in evacuation centres,
a number that is growing as more districts in Bangkok are inundated.
The Thai government has been urging more
people to move to any of the 126 shelters that have been set up because that
would eliminate the need to distribute supplies to marooned households. But
many have chosen to remain in their homes to safeguard their possessions.
Tethenee Deesamrong, 45, one of more than
2,000 evacuees at Rajamangala Stadium, had tried her best not to leave her home
in Phra Nakhon district, Ayutthaya province, a fortnight ago.
When the waters arrived, Tethenee, who worked
as a chambermaid in the Ayutthaya Grand Hotel, rented a place that was on
higher ground, paying 1,800 baht (US$58) in advance. But by the time she and
her 22-year-old daughter, together with her three-year-old niece, had moved a
few belongings to the new place, it was under water as well.
She went out looking for yet another dry place
in the middle of the night, but turned back as the water was rising very fast.
When she returned to her rented place, her daughter and niece were gone.
Without a cellphone, she could not contact her
daughter. She spent the next three days and nights on an overpass until she was
rescued by troops.
She was taken to Thammasat University at
Rangsit, where she managed to call her daughter and was relieved that she and
the little girl were safe and staying with a friend. The two had been forced to
flee the fast-rising water that night in Ayutthaya before Tethenee got back.
Like Siriluck, Tethenee was forced to leave
Thammasat and was taken to the Rajamangala Stadium, where they have been for a
week.
Tethenee said her job at the hotel paid her
5,700 baht a month, plus two meals a day and tips. There is no telling when the
hotel will reopen, she said.
"We lost everything. I had just bought a
new fridge, washing machine and rice cooker; they are all gone. I left the
house that night in shorts and T-shirt. I didn't even have my wallet and ID
cards."
The evacuees' tales are all similar. So are
their fears.
"There is a rumour that this place will
also be flooded and we will have to move again, to Pattaya," said
Tethenee, her eyes seemingly looking for assurance that this is not the case.
Unfortunately, no one - not even the experts - can give her the answer she
seeks.
Nirmal Ghosh
The Straits Times
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