Sugar Disaster On Chao Phraya River

[Soutpeel]

TV reports this morning saying that compensation will not be paid out due to it not being a natural disaster, (unlike flooding and rice crops destroyed).

The owner of the barge has not been forthcoming in offering compo either.

Most likely the correct decision....

Vessel owners are suppose to carry insurance for this sort of thing, but I am guessing in this case....no insurance..

[thaihome]

Piloted barge with wheel house is what it looks to me in the video. Note the other barges hauling ass past the one on the bank. Very close together as well. If you look at the video that RickBradford kindly posted around the 8:10 mark i think they might be the same cruising by.Or not.

That wheel house is the living quarters for the people that live on the barge. I am not sure if the barges even have rudders.

Note that in the sequence you mention, that is actually a string of barges running downstream being towed in reverse by a tugboat against the current in order to maintain steerage.

TH

[BOS2BKK]

Is this the sugar they use for the toxic lollipops?

55555555555555 There is not a grain of evidence in that

It is certainly creating a sticky situation.

[Lite Beer]

Salvage team seek to lift sunken barge today

By The Nation on Sunday

Thai authorities are set to lift a sunken sugar barge off the Chao Phraya riverbed this morning, after managing to put two pontoons in place and getting towboats ready yesterday to remove the barge.

The vessel sank on May 31.

After 10 days of working against strong tides, the salvage team managed yesterday to put two pontoons - 6m wide, 12m long and 1.5m-high, and capable of carrying 150 tonnes, under the sunken barge.

Marine Department chief Thawalrat Onsira, who was with Ayutthaya Governor Wittaya Phiewpong to observe the mission, said that, since there was a four-metre space between the pontoons and the barge, Royal Thai navy scuba divers could also put balloons under the pontoons to boost the lifting power, if that was needed later.

Thawalrat explained that they had filled the pontoons with water so that they sank and were put under the barge parallel with both sides of the sunken vessel. The task was completed at 6pm yesterday.

This morning, they will fill the pontoons with air until they re-float and lift the barge up. Three large tugboats would pull the barge from the front and another two would at the rear to provide direction control.

They planned to tow the barge to Bang Sai district for repairs, he said.

Wittaya said he felt happier and appreciated the hard work done by the salvage team, which could now be called a success because there was only one task left to do - fill the pontoons with air.

In regard to assistance for people affected by the accident, he said Weera Chompan from the Lawyers Council visited "victims" yesterday and said the group was willing to help them free-of-charge to sue those responsible for compensation. Many villagers had said they were content that the barge owner had vowed to fully help the affected persons, he noted.

The sugar barge crashed into the Chao Phraya riverbank on May 31 before sinking and spilling 2,400 tonnes of brown sugar into the river in Ayutthaya's Mueang district. The accident led to water pollution and massive fish deaths because it reduced the level of dissolved oxygen in the water.

The barge, lying across the riverbed, also directed strong currents, which had damage at least four houses on the riverbank and interrupted traffic on the river.

-- The Nation 2011-06-12