Flooding In Thailand

[Neeranam]

Last night there was flooding in Khon Kaen province. I got stuck in a traffic jam "nai meaung"(in the city) for 30 minutes which was a first for me, then had to drive through 2 foot deep water, which nearly ######ed my car right up.

When I was in Bangkok in October 95, there were terrible floods, especially near the Chao Phraya river. I got stranded once on Charansanit wong road near where "Toxin the corrupt" lives. Had to get saved by army trucks, got home from work at 4 o'clock in the morning, plastered. Great laugh as one bar was full of stranded people sitting on the tables HRH put a plan into action to reduce flooding in Bangkok, which I think has worked. What do you old-timers think?

I heard that the worst flood in recent years was in 1985, when sukhumvit road was 1 metre deep.

The flooding season is coming, usually October is the worst, forget what the guide books say.

What about "toxin the corrupt"? Is the rest of the country outside bangkok getting a bad deal, as usual?

Which area of the country are getting worse and which better?

[Thetyim]

Phrae used to be terrible with metre plus floods every year.

Over the past three years new flood drains have been added and the flooding has been greatly reduced. I won't say eliminated 'cos that would be tempting fate.

The water now gets dumped into the Maeyom River and the next town downstream gets it. It is called progress.

[sriracha john]

I heard that the worst flood in recent years was in 1985, when sukhumvit road was 1 metre deep.

I slowly waded across sukhumwit which was under a metre of water in 2001 in Sriracha... although it's narrower down in these neck of the woods as opposed to BKK..

[uncle paul]

I heard that the worst flood in recent years was in 1985, when sukhumvit road was 1 metre deep.

I slowly waded across sukhumwit which was under a metre of water in 2001 in Sriracha... although it's narrower down in these neck of the woods as opposed to BKK..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

water shortage in rayong due to very little rain not good for my lake

[plachon]

It's not getting worse or better in terms of rainfall - some years are wetter than average, some drier. But what is changing, and probably explains your flood in Khon Kaen, is that large parts of Thailand are getting filled in (like Nong Ngu Hao swamp) for infrastructure development and urbanisation.

Khon Kaen is a prime example where nearly all the low lying areas which used to collect runoff in the wet season have been backfilled one by one and built over. I used to love seeing the old rice mill in the swamp before the railway as you came into KK from the Mitraphab, but sadly it has just been filled in like all the rest of the natural storage basins.

Result - water has no place to go but on the roads and in people's houses when it rains hard as the drains just can't cope. It's quite simple really, but yet the town planners still don't get it. (They do get plenty of purple notes though for not doing their jobs correctly ) Heavy downpours in the rainy season haven't changed, but concrete jungles have!