Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra yesterday said she would ask the Bangkok authorities to open all of the city’s floodgates to drain water into the sea, increasing the risk of inundation in the capital.
“I have decided to ask Bangkok to open all gates, which could trigger an overflow, in order to drain water into the sea as soon as possible,” Yingluck said at an emergency meeting.
“At the same time water pumps will help pump out water and city officials will clear waterways of hyacinth plants,” she said.
Photo: Reuters
Inner Bangkok has so far escaped major flooding as the authorities divert water to areas outside the main capital in a bid to prevent the Chao Phraya River bursting its banks and flooding the political and economic heartland.
However, a massive volume of run-off water is expected to reach the city by the weekend, putting a huge strain on its flood defenses and a heavy burden on people in severely affected areas just outside of the capital.
Earlier Yingluck said it would be impossible to block the water forever and the government would choose which parts of the city to allow the water through to minimize the impact.
“The longer we block the water the higher it gets,” she said. “We need areas that water can be drained through so the water can flow out to the sea.”
Bangkok has an extensive drainage system including 200 floodgates, 158 pump stations, seven giant underground tunnels and 1,682 canals covering 2,604km, according to the city authorities.
The government has reinforced the city’s floodwalls in an attempt to prevent the floods pouring in from the central plains, which are several meters under water in places, but efforts to keep the city of 12 million people dry have been complicated by a seasonal high tide.
“Flood waters are coming from every direction and we cannot control them because it’s a huge amount of water. We will try to warn people,” said Yingluck, a political novice before taking office barely two months ago.
“This problem is very overwhelming. It’s a national crisis, so I hope to get cooperation from -everybody,” she said at a crisis center set up at Bangkok’s Don Muang airport.
“Blaming each other won’t help. Today we need unity to solve the problem,” she added.
The worst flooding in half a century now covers a third of Thailand’s provinces, some 1.6 million hectares in the north, northeast and center of the country.
The opposition Democrats are calling on the government to declare a state of emergency to make it easier to control people and stop them damaging dykes to ease the flooding in their own areas.
Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra — a Democrat — warned on Wednesday that seven districts in northern and eastern Bangkok were at risk of inundation because of a broken dyke.
He advised residents in those areas to unplug electrical appliances, move belongings to higher ground and study the city’s -evacuation plan, saying they had 24 hours to prepare for possible flooding.
One inner city area of Bangkok was under threat yesterday after floodwater breached a waterworks canal, officials said.
A survey of 415 residents in Bangkok and nearby provinces by pollsters at Assumption University this week showed that 87 percent thought that the government’s information was unreliable.
Additional reporting by Reuters
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was