7. Impact of the 2005 flood - Country reports (cont')
7.2 Impact of the 2005 flood in Lao PDR (cont')
7.2.2 Availability of data
In Lao PDR, data are centralised at provincial level, through the Provincial Disaster Management Committees (PDMCs), in which the technical departments and the districts are represented. Data are collected from the field by technical departments. In addition, the village chiefs often keep records of the damage, with a major focus on paddy fields.
In Lao PDR, flood is generally seen as a source of problems.
In 2005, infrastructure were severely affected by flash floods
and from long periods of flood in the low-lying areas located
close to the Mekong River. Long flooding periods affected
the paddy fields and ruined farmers' incomes. Fish production
carried out in fish ponds was also affected by the excessive
flooding.
In Piaka District of Champone, in Savannakhet, the Village Head was able to show a very precise inventory of the damage caused by the 2005 flood. In his book, he had written the names of heads of families, the number of people living in the family and for each farmer, the area planted and the area destroyed. As the village was concerned about having sufficient seedlings for replanting, the seedling damage was also reported. As the village expects to be flooded every year, damage to livestock and other assets was generally limited, and was not recorded precisely.
The reliability and coherence of the data collected at provincial levels, strongly depends on the coordination quality of the Provincial Committees and on the severity of the flood. In some provinces, eg Khammouan, which was particularly affected by 2005 flood, an exhaustive report was prepared in 2005, including a table of damage, PowerPoint presentations and pictures. In other provinces, data were not reconciled nor validated at Committee level and discrepancies in the figures collected by the different institutions may be observed. In some places data are not available at all.
At central level, data are collected through two means. The Technical Departments have their own reporting from their provincial branch offices, while the National Disaster Management Organisation (NDMO) collects the information from the Provincial Committees. This may also generate some inconsistencies when comparing the consolidated figures.
For the time being, a considerable effort is being made in Lao PDR to obtain more exhaustive and accurate data on flood damage. Nevertheless, there is a strong need to improve coordination and data flow procedures to gather those data at the central level.
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