Bangkok districts told to brace

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City Hall agrees to open up canals for drainage

Published: 21/10/2011 at 10:17 AM
Newspaper section: News

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has agreed to help drain northern runoff into the sea through the city's canals as parts of Don Muang and Laksi districts were declared flood-risk zones yesterday.

Bangkok Governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra last night issued a flood warning to residents in Thung Si Kan and Don Muang subdistricts in Don Muang district and Thung Song Hong subdistrict in Laksi district.

It is the second warning from the governor in addition to the first order made on Wednesday to seven other districts, but the previous warning was for people to relocate their belongings to high ground only.

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: Writer: Post Reporters; Position: Reporters

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pro2011
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Discussion 16 : 21/10/2011 at 06:46 PM16
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I find it pathetic that "some" are trying to use the floods against PTP or Yingluck. The root cause of this flooding is years of previous governments ignoring the need to improve flood defences. Why even last years flooding was bad in Thailand but Abhisit and Democrats deemed it more necessary to give billions of baht to the army to spend, than to improve flood prevention. Perhaps now is the time to ask why so much has been spent on an Army/Navy in the past 5 years who are not at war - when nothing has been done in the past years to prevent flooding.
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englishbob
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Discussion 15 : 21/10/2011 at 06:01 PM15
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I notice the 'Thai Rak Thai' comments have dried up. A week ago, everyone was pulling together and helping neighbours. Now people are blocking roads with their abandoned cars, breaking dykes and looting homes.

Seems like it's 'every man for himself' now.
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spiceman
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Discussion 14 : 21/10/2011 at 05:48 PM14
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The fact is beginning to emerge that this flooding disaster stemmed from Govt's gross mismanagement of the dams' water reservoirs up north. That explains the enormous amount of water being released downstream, wiping out everything in its path. I wish PM YS realized the magnitude of the disaster sooner, in order, to issue early warning so people in communities downstream could begin to evacuate, as well as, those in industrial communities to begin packing up their machineries and moving them out to high grounds. This early warning alone could have saved hundreds of lives and hundreds of billion of bahts. Instead, the Govt kept raising fault hope of containing the approaching gigantic floodwater, with disastrous and deadly results.

Water knows no Color as it always take the path of the least resistance toward the sea. So, I hope the Bangkok's Mayor would try his best to drain out as much water as possible through Bangkok's cannel system into the sea, with acceptable damage to the city for the sake of all the people living in flooded areas.

Finally, after this disaster finally comes to pass, I hope PM YS will appoint a panel of experts to investigate what went so catastrophically wrong, so the disaster of this magnitude will never happen again.
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heartie
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Discussion 13 : 21/10/2011 at 04:48 PM13
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The canal nearest to The Mall Rama 1 and Home Pro in Nonthaburi has been overflowing into the street for hours. The biggest problem is now with the lack of petrol at the stations. The que for taxis at these stations is very long and takes hours to fill up. That's IF the station can even get petrol! I saw the que outside of the department of energy near the Mor Chit station where taxi drivers had to turn off their engines and leave their cars parked. There are far fewer buses running than normal! Taxis are being extremely selective as to where they will go under these circumstaces and it's not about money either.
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ianprince
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Discussion 12 : 21/10/2011 at 03:22 PM12
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Farang news agencies think Yinluck did a GOOD job.
Thai news agencies think Yinluck did a BAD job.

Who is more correct?
I'm sorry, but I believe in Thai people more than Farang, who always seems to be bias.
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kaweeka
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Discussion 11 : 21/10/2011 at 01:30 PM11
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Whatever the case, this not some issue that was caused by some recent governemnt change, but the lack of planning for decades. Thailand always has and always will be - with increasing frequency - prone to flooding, yet the only contingency plans ever made are around saving the all mighty city of Bangkok, at the expense of others. Flood prevention starts with mega projects that can help divert vast amounts of water to the sea, not through some decades-old canals that are ill maintained.

It doesn't take a lot of understanding about water pressure to see that a 6 feet wide wall of sandbags is not going to stop this huge amount of water for long. Damns are made of re-inforced concrete and solid foundations for a very good reason.
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lasse
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Discussion 10 : 21/10/2011 at 11:26 AM10
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Why they open the drainage in Bangkok now and not before. I thought the idea was to speed up the water in the river long time ago. No one in Bangkok have serious problems about 20 - 30 cm water. This is normal when we have heavy raining.
I don’t know very much of drainage, but my logic say start with 10 cm. and when you know the consequence open 10 cm. more. 80 cm to 1 meter must be an awful lot of water power people have to deal with.
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sideliner
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Discussion 9 : 21/10/2011 at 10:00 AM9
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Whether it will help to reduce the flood situation in the north of the town, whether it will flood certain areas in down-town, I have to leave to the experts, as otherwise I would follow the government in the footsteps of pretending and showing extreme incompetence. Nevertheless there may be a positive point to this exercise, it may flush out all black water from the inner city Khlongs, or a little blunter, it’s flushing the “toilet” of Bangkok.
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morgo
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Discussion 8 : 21/10/2011 at 09:45 AM8
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Just read the latest report by Neil Adger from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, A quote "Cities need to be more strategic about their location". It's time for all governments to act on climate change especially developed nations.
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flippogirl
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Discussion 7 : 21/10/2011 at 09:21 AM7
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D7, Maeab,

Actually, I think that Foreign News (CNN, BBC, CNBC, etc.) have a more independent view of Thailand than all these biased posters here on the Bangkok Post.

Moreover, I really don't think it's time to critisize, or lay blame on anybody (whether you want to lay blame on Yingluck, Abhisit or whoever), but time to pray for all the people affected.

If you think more can/should be done, get of your keyboard and take some action. Lead by example!
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