Bangkok seeks Dutch help to avoid sinking

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration is seeking advice from Dutch experts on how to prevent coastal erosion and floods after a study revealed parts of Bangkok will sink within 40 years.

The report - released by a consultant who received financial support from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation - predicted Bangkok, Samut Prakan, Samut Songkhram and Samut Sakhon would bear the blunt of climate change which would increase the sea level in the Gulf of Thailand by more than 32cm. Worse, more than half of the impact is expected to occur in western parts of Bangkok, especially Bang Khunthian district.

Bang Khunthian has seen five kilometres of shoreline recede because of coastal erosion, according to Bangkok Governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra, who yesterday described the situation as "very frightening."

The study found more than a million people in Bang Khunthian, Bang Kae and Bang Bon districts in Bangkok and Samut Prakan's Phra Samut Chedi district would be hardest hit by damage to their residential areas, estimated at 140 billion baht.

"We cannot take it easy on this," MR Sukhumbhand said.

The City Hall decided to consult flood experts from the Netherlands, which is situated under the mean sea level (MSL).

"Its areas are lower than the sea by between six and nine metres below MSL, but people have lived without problems for more than 100 years," MR Sukhumbhand said.

Last year, City Hall announced a plan to build T-groins, or detached breakwaters, off Bang Khunthian coast to soften strong waves. More than a square kilometre of land there has sunk.

MR Sukhumbhand said he would also take into consideration a suggestion to increase the height of the embankment along the Chao Phraya river.

The finding paints a dimmer prospect of higher sea levels in the Gulf than earlier forecast by experts who estimated the increase in sea level would be 29cm. The new study is aimed at encouraging Thailand and neighbouring countries to work together to deal with the challenges of coastal erosion.