A community of flood memories living with(in) the riverine landscape in ayutthaya 5

Paa Samruay related a very similar experience many in Ayutthaya faced during the onset of the 2011 flood: The [local] government kept telling us we would not be flooded… They said the d

5 A Productive Archive:

memories and the capacity to act in this world

5.1 Overview: a productive archive

Memory is a means of dislodging fixed, closed readings of one’s present condition, a condition understood as the inevitable extension of a past filled with discontent Memory also nourishes hope

Pignatelli (1998), Critical Ethnography/Poststructuralist Concerns, pp

407 There are two things I live by after the 2011 flood The first: we cannot depend on the government during a flood We can only depend on ourselves, our families and on our community… And the second thing,

we need to change the way we live We have changed the rivers too much, a flood like 2011 will happen again We need to prepare for the future by bringing the water back into our lives and our homes

Loong Pichit/ 52/ Shop owner/ Male/ April 2014

Natural hazards – as floods are often perceived to be – are often not ‘natural’ (Smith, 2006) As many works have shown empirically, vulnerability to, and the ability

to recover from such events are often closely related to socio-economic factors and the accessibility of resources (see Cutter et al, 2003; Mustafa, 2008; Collins, 2010) Others further contend that vulnerabilities to environmental hazards are proxies of broader political and social marginalization (see Sultana, 2011) Indeed, I was constantly told that there was nothing ‘natural’ about the 2011 flood in Ayutthaya The flood was a case of mismanagement on the part of the central and municipal governments The participants, too, recognized that different groups within the community were unevenly affected by the flood In the first section of this chapter, I will show how both the central and municipal governments have chosen to ‘forget’ these ‘unnatural’ aspects of the 2011 flood This ‘forgetfulness’ is not to be understood literally; rather, it connotes an almost wilful neglect of the impacts of the

2011 flood on the people in public discourses and policies I further expound on the resultant discontent – one of the definitive emotions produced in and through the active archive - of the people towards this forgetfulness and perceived inaction

As the quote above by Pignatelli (1998) suggests, memory offers opportunities to move beyond this discontent, for it nourishes hopes and aspirations for the future – and this is exactly what the active archive of Ayutthaya does Appadurai (2003: 19; see also Featherstone, 2006; Rao, 2009; Levy, 2010) asserts that the archive is a site of a deliberate social and political project through which people craft ‘possible worlds and imagined selves’ Social relations are not merely reflected but reconstituted through the archive Hence, people living within the archive are not passive Despite economic and/or social limitations, people are active subjects who intervene and participate in the (re)making of their worlds and futures (Appadurai, 2003; see also Jackson, 2002) The archive provides fodder upon which that world is remade The repetitive mnemonic practices, encounters and engagements with objects of memory in the archive influence perceptions, knowledge, and actions (see Braun, 2008; Koppel & Hirst, 2010) related to future floods Hence, the archive is not simply a documentation of the past, but a tool that is used productively for the future

With the focus still pegged on the everyday, I will discuss how varied memories of the 2011 flood are impetuses for the redevelopment of vernacular architecture and home-making rituals Additionally, ethical projects of mutual aid and informal sharing networks are also established by the community of flood memories

in response to the 2011 flood These changing practices and routines often result in im/material changes to the lived landscape, thus, increasing Ayutthaya’s capacity to live with riverine rhythms I will also draw attention to how certain memories of the

2011 flood are made normative through informal exhibitions, publications and

storytelling These memories-as-representations are put to work to affect specific

behaviours during future floods

5.2 A note on forgetfulness and its resultant discontent

I'm impressed by the speed of sandbagging and the distribution of food and water [in Thailand], but you can't always solve problems with sandbags It's shocking how people are unprepared for the flood It's

as if the phenomenon of flooding has been completely forgotten in Thailand

Adri Verwey (2011)30

I remember feeling angry after reading articles about how the Thai state responded to various floods in 2000, 2005, 2006 (Manuta et al, 2006; Lebel et al 2009; Lebel et al, 2011) I realized that the issues surrounding the lack of organization and transparency, and the short-term nature of aid raised by the writers were again repeated in the state’s handling of the 2011 flood in Ayutthaya Notably, Manuta et al (2006) write that flood warnings were only issued a few hours before the waters reached Chiang Mai in 2005 Hence, there was simply no time for the people

to prepare for the impending floods Paa Samruay related a very similar experience

many in Ayutthaya faced during the onset of the 2011 flood:

The [local] government kept telling us we would not be flooded… They said the dams and floodwalls protecting the city were working well and the situation was ‘manageable’31 We also heard Yingluck32 on TV…

She said, ‘we can manage the waters’ [shakes head, laughs] They only told us Ayutthaya might be flooded about a few hours before the waters

came When it came, of course, no one was prepared

Paa Samruay/ 60/ Odd-job worker/ Female/ April 2014

Manuta et al (2006) further critique that in the aftermath of the 2005 floods, various developmental projects for housing, social welfare, and urban planning were largely divorced from the flood management programs in Thailand Flood management and

30

Adri Verwey is an urban flood expert with Netherlands-based water management think-tank, Deltares He was interviewed by the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) during the 2011 flood: http://www.preventionweb.net/english/professional/news/v.php?id=23942

31 The phrase ‘manageable’ – ao yu - was heard constantly as we talked with the participants Since the disastrous response of the municipality and the central government towards the flood, the phrase has since entered day-to-day speech of many in Ayutthaya as a sarcastic jab

32

risk reduction schemes were deemed independent of developmental issues This resulted in the lack of follow-up assistance apart from the relief assistance at the onset of the deluge, and meagre monetary compensations People, especially those

in remote areas, were left to ‘fend for themselves’ (Manuta, 2006:18; Lebel et al, 2011) The people in Ayutthaya city – hardly a remote area – also experienced this in

2011 As we spoke with paa Hom in Soi Si, her daughter-in-law and some

neighbours were hanging around, and in unison, they expressed discontent with their memories of the ‘one-time’ compensation many of them received:

paa Hom: My family got 5000 Baht (about SG$200 or US$150) for a

one-time compensation… Can you believe it? That’s all, 5000 Baht! We

can’t even fix the doors [laughs sardonically]

paa Jim: Most of the families here only got 5000 Baht But those

working in the municipality bought expensive cars after the flood33…

[everyone laughs]

P’Toi: I think we were not surprised at how little we got But I think they should have helped us more, especially the poorer and older people The flood was the hardest on them No one helped with clean up, no

one tried to help us rebuild our homes No one even offer any medication or do any medical check ups My friend died from a waterborne brain parasite and the doctors said it was likely from the flood… They don’t seem to care if we could live properly after the flood

Whether the family was rich or poor, most would just get 5000 Baht

Conversation at Soi Si/April 2014 Paa Hom/ 54/ Odd job worker/ Female

Paa Jim/ 55/ Hawker/ Female P’Toi/ 35/ Factory worker/ Female

(Emphasis my own) P’Toi understood the flood as one that had different impact on people of different social and economic groups and hence, certain groups required more help

to cope with the event – this insight was largely ignored by state agencies A participant, P’Ngoen, is a structural engineer working with the municipality P’Ngoen believes that the municipality’s approach to floods is to ‘react to the event’ (he stressed strongly that his opinions are not representative of the municipality’s stance

33

We believe that they were hinting at corrupt practices at the municipal level The issues of funds embezzlement and corruption, according to many participants, are open secrets in Ayutthaya

on flood management) This reactionary form of mobilization results in the prevalence of and over-reliance on practices such as the building of temporary floodwalls with sandbags, concrete and mud to ‘keep the waters out’ With the internal budget and organizational problems, the municipality remains largely under prepared for another future floods - ‘they will probably do the same if another flood comes’, P’Ngoen said It is obvious that despite the multiple opportunities for the state to learn from these past floods (Lebel et al 2011), little has been done to improve the capacity of various social groups to cope with future events Hence, at the governmental level, the memory of floods is surprisingly short-lived As waters return to their pre-flood levels, interests in the rivers quickly subside (Pfister, 2009) This almost deliberate forgetfulness towards the seasonal rhythms of rivers is reflective of a deep-seated, ‘hazards-oriented’ view towards floods Many leaders and government officials – including then-prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra – argued that the 2011 flood was a ‘natural disaster’ to be ‘resisted’:

The crisis we’re facing today is the most critical natural disaster that ever happened in Thai history

[…]

What we’re doing today is resisting the force of nature… We cannot resist all of it

Yingluck Shinawatra,

Quoted in The New York Times (28 October 2011)

The pervasiveness of this perspective is further reflected in the state’s narrow and simplistic emphasis on structural means to regulate water flows – despite the fact that this has been proven, time and again, to be grossly inadequate (Lebel et al, 2011; Ziegler et al 2012) The biggest issue with large-scale, technocentric flood protection structures is not only the false hopes and security they generate; they also transform regular events – seasonal floods – into rare ‘interruptions’ that few are prepared for (Colten & Sumpter, 2009) Since the 2011 flood, the Thai state has

350 billion Baht (SG$14 billion or US$10.5 billion) for flood and river management (Bloomberg, 4 November 2011; Bangkok Post, 7 March 2013) Some have since

argued that these large, highly visible and ostentatious projects are really opportunities for the state to gain political legitimacy and support (Interviews,

April/May 2014; Reuters, 28 October 2011) However, many of these projects remain incomplete, and some were abandoned (Bangkok Post, 20 October 2014) With the

recent political turmoil and military coup, flood concerns are again relegated to the perennial backburner

Likewise, in Ayutthaya, according to P’Ngoen and the spokesperson of the Historical Parks Office (HPO), the municipal government had dredged the canals around the city and drew up plans to build permanent floodwalls around the island after 2011 Several participants have heard of these plans – it was announced in the local papers and news channels in early 2012 However, these plans have never materialized, and the canal dredging – like the monetary compensations - was eventually phased out over time The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) had attempted to include the local communities into its mitigation

strategies in Ayutthaya Notably, there is the Mr and Ms Caution program, in which

two or three people from each village would be appointed as ‘risk ambassadors’ to disseminate flood warnings and information to their respective villages Trainings were also held, supposedly, to ‘educate’ the population on what to do in the event of

a flood (Thai Rath34, 22 August 2012) However, none of the participants, with the exception of the village head of Long Law35, have heard of these initiatives Several participants asked their neighbours about these projects – they, too, have not heard

of these projects Thus, while the spirit of these projects may be commendable, their effects and reach are seemingly minimal These unheard initiatives fuel the belief

34

Thai Rath is a daily Thai-language newspaper, for the article see

http://www.thairath.co.th/content/285155

35

When we asked the village head about it, he told us that he has heard of the initiative from

a friend working in the DDPM There was, however, no representative from the DDPM to explain these programs to the people in all three villages

that local authorities are largely inadequate and indifferent There are also speculations that corruption and embezzlement plague these organizations These perceptions, in addition to the memories of hardship during the 2011 flood – which many in Ayutthaya still blame the local government for – result in the development of

a deep sense of distrust and discontentment towards the local authorities in the community of flood memories:

The compensation system is corrupted and politicized… If you are a

supporter of governor, you get more [sic] That’s how it is [Agitatedly]

When my friend asked for more aid because he lost his job and his house, they said to him, ‘we have already paid you.’ We cannot trust such a government to help us when there is another flood in the future, right? That’s why we have to rely on ourselves

Loong Pichit/ 52/ Shop owner/ Male/ April 2014

I understand why the central government protected Bangkok It was for the country’s survival When they did that they assumed that the municipal governments could take care of their people But Ayutthaya’s municipal government did not do its job well They said they could manage and then, they couldn’t During the flood there was no news

about what was happening After the flood, they gave us 5000 Baht… I also know a neighbour who got 20,000 Baht but even that was not

enough [sic] Most of us got only 5000 Baht and they expect us to keep quiet, forget that the flood happened and go on living [Laughs]

I think this is what it means to be a lousy government People in Long Law are tired of them

Paa Not/ 53/ Home maker/ Female/ May 2014

(Emphasis my own) Instead of ‘forget[ing] that the flood happened’, the people in Ayutthaya, as

we have seen in Chapter Four, are resolutely holding on to their memories of the

2011 flood Through various practices and interactions with more-than-human objects within the lived landscape, the flood remains greatly relevant and permeates the thick of life in Ayutthaya Therefore, despite differences in the ways of remembering, the 2011 flood is an important part of many participants’ individual identities, and on a broader level, the collective identity of Ayutthaya This creation of

an active archive is the first form of an everyday intervention against the state’s and

municipal government’s apparent ‘forgetfulness’ (Appadurai, 2003) This, almost mundane, intervention does not stop at the perpetuation and practices of memories Instead, these memories serve as important references for the future Somewhat ironically, the memories of the ‘unnatural’ 2011 flood are encouraging people in Ayutthaya to actively incorporate riverine rhythms in their everyday lives, as they hope for a future in which floods will no longer be ‘problematic’ Rather than relying

on the state to fulfil this hope for the future, the people are, in loong Pichit’s words, actively ‘bring[ing] the water back into [their] lives and homes’, and many are moving away from reactionary, short-term responses to future floods

5.3 Memories and living with(in) the riverine landscape

Knowing that I could live through the 2011 flood and that I could rebuild

my life with almost nothing really give me strength [sic] I think I can face another flood… Because remembering 2011 means I now know what to

expect [Laughs]

Loong Sud / 57/ Hawker/ Male/ April 2014

Based on western socio-economic indicators, loong Sud is not economically

well off Earning about US$20 a day, he is, like most of the participants, one of the many ‘richer poor’ in Thailand’s middle-income economy (see Warr, 2011; Rigg et al,

2014) If we subscribe to the usual parameters of vulnerability studies, loong Sud -

he lives in a small wooden house about 30m from the banks of the Chao Phraya River, and like many participants, he has little political, economic or social ‘influence’

of any sort – would probably be classified as ‘highly vulnerable’ to the impacts of floods He recognizes this vulnerability Indeed, he had experienced this vulnerability

when he lost his home, his shop and all his material possessions in 2011 Loong Sud

– as a ‘poor’ person – was expected to adapt to the circumstances thrust upon him

during the flood (see The Straits Times, 10 November 2014) Yet, by holding on to

the memories of these circumstances and adaptations, these memories become a

‘source of strength, context and renewal’ for loong Sud (Massie & Reed, 2013: 183)

Besides being a source of emotional strength, the everyday memories of the flood

also allow loong Sud to ‘know what to expect’ In turn, these memories increase his

capacity to live with rivers and within the riverine landscape By choosing to stay – or rather, by having no choice but to stay – and face the inundation, loong Sud and

many in Ayutthaya accumulated knowledge and experience about an ‘inconvenient event’ that is a part of the rivers’, albeit human-induced, rhythms Thus, flood memories are not merely tied to vulnerability, but also closely associated with future resilience

5.3.1 Redeveloping vernacular architecture and home-making rituals

Figure 5.1: Buildings undergoing reconstruction in Ayutthaya – most houses were adding a ‘softy layer’ at the bottom; or second storeys are added to single-storey houses (top right)

As we walked around Ayutthaya, I noticed that many buildings, mostly homes and temples, were in the midst of reconstruction (Figure 5.1) These structures are vernacular dwellings – designed and built by their inhabitants with locally available resources and technologies (Asquith & Vellinga, 2006) Buildings are never simply blank ‘coherent, individual edifices’ (Kraftl, 2010: 405) They are often caught up in the constant materialization and reconfiguration of ideas and values; and the practices within and physical alterations of buildings are integral to the unfolding of the landscape Likewise, memories are present not only in monuments and places built for recall, but often bounded up with structures encountered and experienced in our daily lives; usually ‘unlooked for and uncelebrated’ (McEwen et al, 2014: 334; Lydon, 2009) A structure may provoke memories, yet, simultaneously, the alterations and uses of the structure embody and articulate memories (Treib, 2009) Traces of the 2011 flood are present in various vernacular buildings around Ayutthaya In addition to the flood lines and present/absent objects we have seen in

Chapter Four, the modifications of the structures are also inundated with the memories of the 2011 flood:

After 2011, we decided that we need a new home so we can live normally when the next flood comes We started building a home on

stilts next to our home The few families here [gestures to three houses next to hers] also chipped in and we are building a big house that we can all live in during the rainy season… [laughing] Like the old Thai

houses, you know? The 2011 flood was about 1.9m here… We measured the mud stains! We are building the house on 2.5m stilts [sic] and I think we should be above the waters In 2011 the hard part was living without electricity because the generator was not high enough to avoid the waters In this new house, we will also install a small generator

on the second floor so that we will have electricity

P’Madee/ 39/ Business owner/ Female/ April 2014

The home, Mary Douglas (1991: 294) argues, is a ‘memory machine’36 Within each physical structure there is a possibility for memory and anticipation Douglas’ idea of ‘anticipation’ falls closely with what we understand as ‘rhythms’ - the recurrence of events following long or short cycles The home is a memory machine

as it anticipates and responds to these rhythms, or memories of these rhythms Douglas (1991: 294-295) illustrates this with the ‘memory of summer droughts’ and how the home responds with shade-giving roofs and water tanks Similarly, P’Madee and her neighbours embed the memory of 2011 flood within their everyday lives by responding to it (Figure 5.2) The new home is being constructed at a certain height based on the maximum height of the 2011 floodwaters; and the generator is to be placed at a certain spot to ensure that flood-induced blackouts would not happen again By responding to and materializing flood memories in built forms, many participants are anticipating the possibility of future floods Using the memories of

2011, they are actively working towards a future in which they can ‘live normally’ with the next flood

36 Little scholars theorizing the spaces and landscapes of ‘home’ have drawn overt

Figure 5.2: P’Mandee’s ‘wet-season home’ is still under construction Neighbours and relatives who live around the area also chipped in for the construction of the house – the house is big enough for a two to three families Inspired by the traditional central Thai houses, the house is elevated by a ‘soft layer’ of 2.5m from ground level The completed house will be rented out as a bed-and-breakfast during the dry season for extra income

The capacity for homes to respond to the memories of floods is, however, uneven; many are often limited by the lack of financial resources While P’Mandee and her neighbours overcome this limitation by sharing their resources, many less

economically well-off participants enact other forms of response Paa Samruay and

her husband are odd-job workers With an unstable, combined income of about

US$20 a day, like loong Sud, they are, too, part of the ‘richer poor’ in Ayutthaya As

we walked around their small, cluttered double-storey wooden home in Soi Si, we

noticed wooden planks lying around and asked paa Samruay about them (Figure

5.3):

Paa Samruay: 2011 reminded us that our home is not right for this

environment But we can’t afford to knock it down and build a higher one

So we decided to make the second floor more comfortable and convenient to live in when another flood comes

[She walks us to a window on the second storey, and points outside]

Paa Samruay: Over here, see? The planks are for a platform we are

building It will give us extra space during a flood, and if we put a ladder

at the edge, we can also get on and off a boat easily depending on the height of the water It’s not done yet because we are buying only a few planks every month That’s all we can afford And a friend has been very kind He gave us leftover wood from his construction site…

Serene/P’Chon: When will you finish?

Paa Samruay: I think we can finish the work before the next flood

With these changes to our home, and the experience of 2011, I am sure

we are better prepared for the next flood But if it is higher than 2011,

maybe we should just forget about living [laughs]… We’ll just have to

learn again, yes?

Paa Samruay/ 60/ Odd-job worker/ Female/ April 2014

Figure 5.3: The slow process of building a wooden platform as an extension of the second storey Wooden planks are slowly accumulated over the years (bottom right) These planks are bought with monthly savings, and also acquired through friends who work in the construction business Also, some

friends have also given paa Samruay and her family life vests for future flood

events (top right)

In addition to the platform extension, one of the first things paa Samruay, like

most participants, did after the flood was to rewire her home Remembering the

breakers for the first and second level of the house Switches were also moved

above the 2011 flood level (Figure 5.4) Paa Samruay also installed a small toilet at

the second storey of her home – this is uncommon for Thai homes – as many participants did (Figure 5.4b) Despite their limited resources, many participants make small-scale, accumulative and easily overlooked modifications to their homes

in order to live ‘comfortably and conveniently’ with floodwaters in the future Un/knowingly, flood memories – be they material presence such as the flood marks

or a less tangible sense of anxiety - are pertinent tools and resources utilized day by the people in Ayutthaya in anticipation of, and to live with, the rhythms of the river The modifications and reconstructions of homes motived by memories have

day-to-‘foster[ed] an affective state of hope’ (Kraftl, 2010: 408) for the future Paa Samruay,

like many respondents, is more confident of her family’s capacity to live with future

inundations Yet, this sense of hope is also not overly lofty or romanticized Paa

Samruay recognized that she might not anticipate events outside her memories of the previous flood (Massie & Reed, 2013), and the possible need to ‘learn again’