Thailand is paying an exorbitant price for poor water management, unregulated urban planning and state incompetence. More than 2 million people in 23 provinces have been suffering from the floods for months. More than 300 people have perished. Ricefields and nearly all industrial estates in the Central Plain have been inundated, dampening the national economy for the long haul. The floodwaters are already lapping at Bangkok. Yet the government's handling of the deluge has hardly changed from day-to-day crisis management, with poor and inadequate information as the rule rather than the exception.