Drainage Capacity 'three Times Higher Than Last Year' In West Bangkok: Flood Test

[scotbeve]

Thai at Heart said:

"Well man got to the moon with less computing power than an I phone, and the Thai govt still needs to do full scale real tests?"

By your short, curt reply here (as in most replies from semi-rabid to rabid anti-govt posters), am I to presume that past govts "got it right" the first time with flood control??? Dead silence here....... To the best of my knowledge, this is the very first time the govt has asked for a "test" to be performed. Don't you Yingluck bashers think that some more data (achieved by Thais) is AT LEAST a positive action for getting hands-on experience and data compilation for extending more flood prevention plans???? The dems are too busy trying to figure out where they will abscond more free handouts and transport to give them face instead of offering their "most esteemed / invaluable" flood prevention wisdom in which they didn't bother bringing forth with EVER!

If you think I am criticising only this government for the mess that Bangkok is, I am not. However, it sits with this one to come up with a plan and REALLY implement it.

We are told that last years flood was the 4th most costly natural disaster in the history of man. You would think that they swallow their pride for just a minute and take every single bit of advice, knowledge, technology, they could from the world's best to solve this issue. Lest we forget, they can't even agree to allow NASA in to do a weather study.

About 15 mn people's lives depend on the solution, and whilst, the best solution if you want to have zero flooding in Bangkok, would be to move it 100%, the efforts we see so far have been marred with political fighting with the Bangkok governor, filled with corruption and apparent mai bpen arai, with a good dose of nimbyism.

It is so typical that instead of taking advice from the world's best, we will be greeted with an in house Thai solution that will be achieved by trial and error, domestic political point scoring, on an issue that is of PARAMOUNT national interest. Why must we be regaled with stories that amount to nothing better than re-inventing the wheel, and high school experiments. It is possible to create a truly integrated and greatly improved system, its just we are in Thailand, and this is the way it is.

They are sitting there openly admitting that they have a channel that goes from 45 cubic a minute to 10 cubic per minute, and the apparent solution is? Who allowed it to be built this way? Who is going to propose a very logical solution to the problem which is to make the channel bigger? Who is going to stump up the money to do it? Who is going to stump up the money to move those affected to new places?

If you want a solution, these are the issues that need solutions, not dredging the canals and putting up walls. I have been here a while, and intend to be here a lot longer. I will remember the name of this channel and wait for its name to appear in the papers as the first place to flood be it in 3, 5 or 15 years time, and will read the headlines, with everyone wondering, how did they manage to spend so much money and not tackle this issue. Bla Bla Bla.

Thai at heart,

Good post and my humble apologies. I agree 100% that the Thai solutions have not / are not always the best ideas or end results. Thai pride and xenophobic ideals have been and are (usually) a large obstacle when approaching any infrastructure issues - and there are literally thousands of them. Political fighting and peeing contests between the BMA (mafia) and this administration were absolutely pitiful.

[MaxLee]

And the answer to the question why the Thsi government doesn't accept foreign expertise is: Fear of losing Face!!! What face is there to save, because the whole world knows how pathetic Yongluck is,…