Defences shielding the centre of Thailand’s capital from the worst floods in nearly 60 years mostly held yesterday as coastal high tides hit their peak. But parts of the city’s outskirts remained submerged along with much of the countryside.
The Prime Minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, said the floodwaters have started to recede after killing almost 400 people, submerging entire towns and shutting hundreds of factories over the past two months. She urged citizens to let the crisis take its course as the floodwaters slowly drain to the sea, with Bangkok lying in their path.
Bangkok residents warily watched the city’s dykes and sandbag barriers as the high tide pushing up the city’s main waterway, the Chao Phraya river, from the Gulf of Thailand peaked just after 9am. They had been told for more than a week that Saturday’s tide would be the greatest test the city’s flood defences had seen since the northern deluge first approached Bangkok more than three weeks ago. While some water seeped through to streets and shops along the river, the tide fell short of the expected high predicted by the Thai navy and there was no major breach.
Higher than usual tides will continue to threaten the city tomorrow and Monday, but none was predicted to be as strong as the one yesterday morning. City official Adisak Kantee said the concrete barriers «are efficiently protecting Bangkok from deluge», though he said smaller, private dykes might yet fail and breach the city centre. «The situation is so far under control,» he said.
Overflows in recent days have reached riverside streets from Chinatown to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. But the royal Grand Palace was dry, less than 24 hours after being ringed by ankle-deep water, and the landmark remained open to tourists. Many visitors carried parasols to protect themselves from the blistering sunshine.
The Prime Minister said in her weekly radio address yesterday that the government was trying to speed the drainage rate, and water in the greater Bangkok area should recede within days. While the streets of central Bangkok were dry and bustling with tourists, flooding spread into areas along the city’s outskirts. Seven of Bangkok’s 50 districts – all in the northern and western outskirts – are inundated. Eight other districts have seen less serious flooding.
In the city’s west, not far from the flooded district of Bang Phlat, sandbags were delivered to the front lines, while vendors did booming trade in life jackets, plastic boats and anything else that floated. Thousands of Bangkok residents have taken advantage of a special five-day holiday to leave town, many confused over government warnings about the flood threat and others growing concerned about dwindling food supplies available in the city’s supermarkets after weeks of panic buying and flood-related distribution problems.
On Friday, the Flood Relief Operations Centre was forced to move its headquarters at Don Muang airport after a power transformer malfunctioned. Authorities were forced to shut down the airport early last week because of flooding on the runways and in surrounding streets.
While many in Bangkok will be breathing more easily now that the highest of tides has passed, there was no sense of complacency in the Sam Sen area, where a floodwall burst yesterday morning under the pressure from the surging water. Residents and soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder in the churning torrents trying to plug the gap and get the flow under control. Not far from there, secondhand bookseller Pormpittaya Tantiwimonkajorn – who has already been forced to close her shop – could do little but watch as the waters rose. «We don’t know how high it’s going to get,» she said. «If we did, we’d know how to protect our property.»
Source: independent.co.uk