Bangkok Flood Barriers in Jeopardy

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26 October 2011

THAILAND – Despite advanced efforts to combat potential flooding, Bangkok is now seeing several of its districts succumb to powerful flood waters. Thailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, recanted earlier statements made regarding the certainty that the capitol city would indeed be safe from flooding. Thai officials went to great lengths to impose barriers and water gates, but the powerful force of the flood waters have proved to be too much for the barriers in place. Thai officials are maintaining a close watch on the Chao Phraya River, which snakes through Bangkok and has begun to overflow into neighborhoods in the capitol city. Reports have been made of about 4 inches of water around the inner city in the Lak Si district of Bangkok, where several government buildings are located. The Thai government has declared a public holiday to go on through next week in order to encourage residents who have not properly gathered supplies and set up defenses, to go ahead and do so as officials do predict more flooding for the Thai capitol. The executive director of the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center stated that there is an 11.5-foot high dyke on the Hok Wa canal, which is now considered to be the “last defense” for Bangkok. So far, the flooding in Thailand has claimed the lives of around 366 people and it is predicted that the heavy submergence of the Northern provinces will have an effect on GDP growth by up to 2 percent for 2011.

SOURCE: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2011/1026/Thailand-floods-Water-seeps-into-heart-of-Bangkok-barriers-may-not-hold

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