Thai Flood Waters Keep Rising, Gov't Mulls Major Drainage Project
Thailand’s Prime Minister says the nation is facing its most critical natural disaster in history, with Bangkok’s Chao Phraya River swelling to a record high.
“The crisis we’re facing today is the most critical natural disaster that ever happened in Thai history,” Prime Minister, Yingluck Shinawatra told reporters on Friday, according to Bloomberg News.
The swelling of Bangkok’s Chao River has swamped nearby tourist areas including the Grand Palace, Chinatown, and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.
Monks at the 200-year-old Temple of the Dawn stacked sandbags on a secondary barrier in case the river overflowed, the AP reported.
“I’d like to ask for cooperation from everyone that we don’t have political parties, nor political games. We must not be divided,” Shinawatra said.
The roads in east Bangkok are blocking water from reaching the canals that drain into the Gulf of Thailand and the government is considering cutting channels through five of the major roads in Bangkok to drain the water as the high tide continues to threaten communities along the river, according to the report.
Citizens of Bangkok are trying to make their way through the city in knee high to waist deep floods by walking, bicycling, truck driving, and river rafting with substituted rafts.
A video by the Associated Press shows one young boy using what appears to be an old tub, as a boat, to get around.
As reported in the AP, high tides are expected to peak on Saturday and will be one of the biggest tests yet of Bangkok’s anti-flood defense.
Worrisome residents fear the worst and are buying bright orange lifejackets and inflatable boats.
“You have to prepare,” resident Fon Kanokporn told the AP, who bought a rubber boat.
Employees at the shop said they had sold well over 3,000 boats in the last week, the AP reported. Some of the buyers said they needed the boats to get to their homes, which have not been accessible by road since the flooding began.
Flood walls protecting the inner city are 8.2 feet high but on Saturday high tide is expected to reach 8.5 feet.
"It is clear that although the high tides haven't reached 2.5 meters, it was high enough to prolong the suffering of those living outside of the flood walls and to threaten those living behind deteriorating walls," Bangkok Gov. Sukhumbhand Paribatra told the AP.
A third of the country has been flooded, killing nearly 400 people and displacing 110,000 more.