BANGKOK, Thailand – Severe flooding across southern Thailand has left a deep economic scar, with new assessments revealing extensive damage to key provinces and the region’s main commercial hub, Hat Yai.
The devastating floods that swept through southern Thailand between November 19 and 27 have caused an estimated 140 billion baht in economic damage, according to Associate Professor Aat Pisanwanich, an expert in international economics and ASEAN. He said the losses across nine severely affected provinces are equivalent to about 15% of their combined Gross Provincial Product, with Songkhla alone accounting for around 75 billion baht.
The nine hardest-hit provinces—Songkhla, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phatthalung, Trang, Satun, Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, and Surat Thani—represent about 70% of the South’s total economy, with roughly 2.9 million people, or 32% of the regional population, affected. Hat Yai District in Songkhla, the region’s economic hub, has suffered the greatest impact.
Direct and indirect losses there, including damage to homes, shops, vehicles, inventories, roads, electricity, and water systems, are estimated between 5.75 and 12.1 billion baht, equal to 7.5–16% of Hat Yai’s Gross Provincial Product.
Aat called on all agencies to draw lessons from this disaster by improving early-warning systems, command and control, communication with the public, and evacuation procedures, stressing that future responses must be more efficient and better coordinated in a single direction. (NNT)
