I have been following the flood situation in Thailand recently because I’m going to Thailand this December ): hope it’ll be fine by the time I reach there!
Somehow, after TWC lessons, I started looking at things from a ‘how does technology and people interact’ perspective. And after session 10, I realized how important it was to be forward looking especially for natural disasters so that harm to people will be minimized.
It seems like technology for natural disaster management is often inadequate and technology is always playing a catch up to deal with the situation. For example, there were large amounts of mismanaged dam waters, which contributed to the flood.
Then, it came to my mind: who is responsible for dealing with such crises or implementation of preventive measures? In my opinion, the government should be largely responsible for preventive measures like building proper drainage systems and dams to prevent a flood from occurring in the first place. This is because a government has to take care of the welfare of the people and national security should be reinforced with proper facilities.
However, the tricky part is who should deal with the aftermath of the disaster? Should companies that have benefited from the country (using it’s resources, etc) contribute to the recovering of the country? Definitely, the government has to step in because again, it is responsible for the general welfare of the country. In the case of companies, there might be moral problems and hidden motives for aiding a country in need after a natural disaster. However, I believe that any help will be beneficial to the country at least in the desperate periods during and just after the floods.
After the floods, the government and companies that have the technological expertise should invest into technology and build better dams, warning systems and the like. Technology is definitely underutilized and it is upsetting that people are getting hurt because the government or companies do not make full use of the available technology to reduce the damage from natural disasters.
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