Urgent actions needed to prevent Bangkok going underwater: Suchatvee
Defeated Bangkok governor candidate Suchatvee Suwansawat on Sunday accused city authorities of mismanaging canal drainage and allowing eastern Bangkok to flood.
Suchatvee, who has an engineering PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), said the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration must take urgent action to prevent worse flooding. The senior Democrat Party politician said the BMA must discharge water from canals to allow floods to drain in eastern districts.
Writing on Facebook, Suchatvee said he was airing opinions as a Bangkok resident cut off by floods, not a politician.
He said mistakes in water management had left Lat Krabang Road flooded with no relief in sight.
“Now, I can’t leave home. If the water in Klong Prawet is not lowered or pumped out through Klong Phra Ong Jao, we will be underwater tomorrow,” Suchatvee said.
He said Lat Krabang Road, Luang Paeng Road and Hua Ta Ke roads had been inundated for several days now.
He urged the BMA to take the following emergency actions:
- Deploy water pumps from districts not at risk to use on both sides of Lat Krabang, Luang Paeng and Hua Ta Ke roads. He said the roads are very long but few pumps were being used there. Worse still, officials were merely pumping floodwater back and forth without a comprehensive drainage plan.
- Urgently reduce water levels in Klong Prawet and tributary canals, which have been overflowing for three consecutive days. Suchatvee said the BMA strategy did not include lowering the levels of Klong Prawet and tributaries such as Klong Lam Pla Thiew, the main drainage network for eastern Bangkok. Their high water levels meant officials cannot drain floodwater from roads.
- Drain floodwaters via the Bang Pakong River in neighbouring Chachoengsao province.
- Install flood sensors in Lat Krabang to allow timely water-management actions.
- Remove sandbags around drainage openings on Lat Krabang Road. The sandbags were not preventing water from coming out of sewers but instead stopping rainwater from draining, he said.
