City Hall is stepping up efforts to improve drainage systems ahead of the seasonal flooding with some 14 areas in the capital remaining prone to inundation, Bangkok governor Aswin Kwanmuang said on Thursday.
He yesterday took reporters on an inspection tour of drainage stations across the capital including at the Kasetsart University intersection on Phahon Yothin Road, near the Green Line electric train's Mo Chit-Ku Kot extension, at Khlong Bang Sue, and Soi Sutthiphon 2 in Din Daeng district.
Pol Gen Aswin said City Hall has implemented measures to deal with annual floods, adding that flood-prone locations in the city, many in low-lying spots, have been reduced from 17 to 14.
The Meteorological Department has announced the kingdom officially entered the rainy season on May 18.
Pol Gen Aswin said floods occur in front of the Criminal Court on Ratchaphisek Road after a heavy downpour.
He said the road has a concave surface which collects water but is unable to drain it off.
He also inspected a newly completed drainage system that utilises a pipe jacking method at Kasetsart University.
The system will help reduce drainage time from four hours to less than one hour in the area where construction projects are underway which hinder drainage capacity in the area when floods strike, the governor said.
However, he said when the projects are completed, each will help increase the drainage capacity in all areas within a radius of 10 square kilometres.
City Hall's department of drainage and sewerage has launched a project to improve 15 pumping stations along Vibhavadi Rangsit Road, he said.
When completed, each will have a pump capacity increasing from 12 cubic metres per minute to 110 cm per minute, and will drain floodwaters into the nearby canal systems, the governor said.
This will help ease the long-standing problem of slow drainage in the city.
Meanwhile, a group of Bangkok residents last week submitted a letter to City Hall, asking it to speed up its expropriation of land for a 130-rai reservoir in Kannayao and Klong Sam Wa districts so it can be built to hold flood water as the community has been plagued by regular inundation for years.
The reservoir is designed to hold 870,000 cubic metres of flood water. When fully developed, the reservoir would save 1.4 million residents from chronic flooding.