Bangkok flooding: Heavens ordered not to rain more than 60 milliliters at a time!

 

Image: Thai Rath

 

Thai Rath interviewed a waterworks engineer to discuss a perennial problem that has plagued Bangkok since time immemorial - flooding. 

 

Their ironic headline encapsulated the sense of frustration that many residents of the capital feel - the heavens have been ordered not to exceed 60 milliliters of rain at a time...or else!

 

Dr Sirilak Chumcheun outlined the main reasons for flooding in Bangkok saying that there were three.

 

One was the run off from the north that entered the metropolitan area - a severe example of this was the devastating 2011 floods that paralyzed much of the outlying areas of the capital for months.

 

Two were the high tides that are experienced in Bangkok in October and November. 

 

Three was the rainfall. This combined with the low lying nature of the land where some districts are just 0.5 centimeters above mean sea level to create great difficulties. 

 

Dr Sirilak got figurative at this point. She described Bangkok like a shallow frying pan.

 

And parts of it had indentations like a pan used to cook Khanom Khrok - a popular dessert fried up in Bangkok on the sidewalks. 

 

The indentations were particularly bad in places like Ramkhamhaeng, Bangkapi, Sukhumvit and Saphan Sung meaning that the only answer was to pump water away to the river or the sea. 

 

 

The drainage system, the klongs, the pumping stations - all could cope to a certain degree unless 60 milliliters of rain came. 

 

Then it was a mess.

 

Thai Rath said that all manner of unregulated building, filling in of klongs, rampant construction, lack of reservoirs and the like added to a recipe for continued flooding woes in Bangkok. 

 

Source: Thai Rath

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2019-07-27

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Dr Sirilak got figurative at this point. She described Bangkok like a shallow frying pan.

 

Sorry, wok did you say!

Build more high rise condos. Bangkok residents should consider to investing on boats instead of buying cars!

 

 

and what do they do ?? NOTHING !!, maybe get a bigger frying pan , check out Lazada

22 minutes ago, shady86 said:

Build more high rise condos. Bangkok residents should consider to investing on boats instead of buying cars!

 

 

Don't knock it, eventually the Bangkokians will be rushing North to avoid the floods like rats from a sinking ship where they will be welcomed with open arms during the rice growing season.

2 hours ago, rooster59 said:

- the heavens have been ordered not to exceed 60 milliliters of rain at a time...or else

Or else what .. My monies on the rain any day if Bangkok wants a punch up with the heaven's .. 

No garbage in the draining system - no flood!

Quote

The heavens have been ordered not to exceed 60 milliliters of rain at a time...or else!

That's about the size of a double scotch.

 

Thai Rat in trouble with weights and measures again, I guess.

I think they may have meant milliMETRES.

6 hours ago, shady86 said:

Build more high rise condos. Bangkok residents should consider to investing on boats instead of buying cars!

 

 

and where do they park their boats......

19 hours ago, rooster59 said:

0.5 centimeters above mean sea level

That is only 5 mm or 0.2 inches.  3 fat people jumping in the ocean would create a wave big enough to cause flooding!  Knowing the Thai proclivity to screw up numbers I'm quite sure she meant 0.5 metres or ~20 inches.  Perhaps the cloud seedingoperation is taking place over Bangkok instead of in the areas where it may be of some use.

Always wondered why they don't dredge the klongs. Works wonders

 

They could also build levees and put more effort into garbage containers on the street with fines for littering

6 hours ago, Prairieboy said:

That is only 5 mm or 0.2 inches.  3 fat people jumping in the ocean would create a wave big enough to cause flooding!  Knowing the Thai proclivity to screw up numbers I'm quite sure she meant 0.5 metres or ~20 inches.  Perhaps the cloud seedingoperation is taking place over Bangkok instead of in the areas where it may be of some use.

I have done a few studies over the years, and this figure is correct, I have all the figures, levels and the height of the protective wall. This is also only the mean level and not the highest which occurs when the highest tides occur when the river if in full flood. And of course floods occur everytime there is heavy rain in the low lying areas of Greater Bangkok. Bigger pumps, drainage tunnels up to 6metres in diameter are being completed, but all drain into the Chaophraya instead of the sea.

"The heavens have been ordered not to exceed 60 milliliters of rain at a time...or else"

 

Almost every article that gets published on the flooding over the years, show complete lack of intelligence when it comes to figures. Bearing in mind the published scientific study on rainfall in Thailand, the correct figure should be 6 Millimetres of rain per day. Although they have got 8mm/day during the 2011 floods. Of course, this is not the peak rainfall which may only be 1 hour or 6mm/hour out of 24hours and causes the flooding which the BMA say is not flooding, but "Water that needs  to be drained".

On 7/27/2019 at 12:23 PM, shady86 said:

Build more high rise condos. Bangkok residents should consider to investing on boats instead of buying cars!

 

 

Dig up the roads and turn Bangkok into the "Venice of the east"  

Nothing like a drought followed by floods followed by drought followed by..................<ad-infinitum> 
At what point does Thailand address their water (mis)management issues?  It seems like "never."

If the high rise buildings all had underground parking lots much of the flooding problem would be solved.  People could leave their vehicles on the ramps as they currenly do, and the flood water would be stored in the parking lots.  The only major problem that I see with that is - Who do the apartments charge for parking the water in the parking lots?

'nuf sed.

3 hours ago, hotchilli said:

Dig up the roads and turn Bangkok into the "Venice of the east" 

That designation has already been allocated to Bangkok.

'nuf sed.

6 hours ago, hotchilli said:

Dig up the roads and turn Bangkok into the "Venice of the east"  

Now that's an idea. I wonder why that hasn't been done before? But then........

On 7/27/2019 at 5:21 AM, RickBradford said:

That's about the size of a double scotch.

 

Thai Rat in trouble with weights and measures again, I guess.

Ordered? Or what??? They will make the rain clouds do a TM.30 and fine them if they dont?  ????