Bangkok Won't Be Hit Severely By Flood

[george]

Bangkok won't be hit severely by flood: governor

BANGKOK: -- Bangkok governor Apirak Kosayodhin assured the public Sunday that capital city residents living along the river would not be hard hit by floods during the current rainy season.

Mr. Apirak expressed his confidence after inspecting an embankment now under construction along the Chao Phraya River.

Construction of the embankment is now almost finished, he added. About 62.5 kilometres has been completed, with only 14.5 kilometres still to be built. The embankment is as long as 77 kilometres and is expected to be completed in 2010. It could prevent floodwaters from reaching inner Bangkok at the maximum level of 2.40 meters.

Mr. Apirak said people living along the river and nearby canals suffered heavily in the past two years during monsoon season as their homes were inundated by floodwaters overflowing river and canal banks.

While construction continues, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) labourers have placed sandbags along the banks to prevent floodwaters below 2.40 meters from entering people's homes, said Mr. Apirak.

Water level here has peaked at around 1.5-1.7 metres while not too many houses are below these levels, he said, adding that BMA workers have been ordered to provide help to flood victims.

He cited a forecast made by the Naval Hydrographic Department as saying that seawaters would rise to its peak again on October 27 and that floods could occur only from the amount of rainfall from now until that date.

--TNA 2007-10-07

[londonthai]

everything depends how the heavy rainfall is - the last year the authorities flooded the west side of bangkok around the thawi wattana district for over 2 month in order to protect the left side from flooding. The area is some 5-6 metres above the sea level, but because there are still a lots of big canals able to hold a lot of rain water the authorities shut all the canal locks into the chao phraya river. Many older houses closer to the khlongs were flooded

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900S...MM?OpenDocument

the same happened in the ang thong province just above the ayuthaya, which was flooded for over 3 months, despite being some 20 m above the sea level.

I do understand that it's very difficult to control water in the mountains, around chang mai - but on the plains it should be done a long time ago.