Public should also have a say in flood
Decisions on flood-prevention systems such as large-scale dams or digging waterways to direct water into the sea should not just be made by the government alone, but the public should also have a say, Takeya Kimio, visiting senior advisor from the Japan I
Kimio is one of the experts Japan has sent across to help the government and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) set up flood-prevention systems for the future.
He said the flooding this year was very serious and the government could do little, though the best solution would be to drain the water through the east and west of Bangkok instead of the central business district.
“Even the Japanese government cannot do better than this because the situation this year is very serious. Releasing the floods through the east and west of Bangkok is the correct way to solve the problem,” he said.
Kimio said Thailand should consider effective flood-prevention systems such as constructing large dams or waterways leading from Ayutthaya to the sea. He admitted that though these options might be environmentally unfriendly, they would be effective in preventing floods in the future.
“This is a decision that should be made by the Thai people as a whole,” he said.
Industry Minister Wannarat Charnnukul said the government was committed to supplying 350 water pumps within a week to help ease the flooding in seven inundated industrial estates. It is believed that factories in the flood-hit estates should resume operations by mid-December.
Nipit Arunvongse na Ayudhya, managing director of Nava Nakorn Industrial Estate, said more pumps were needed because the pumps it has at the moment could not release 20 million cubic metres of water as needed. At present, Nava Nakorn only has the means to drain 650,000 cubic metres of water daily. Nipit said the waters should be cleared within 20 days as soon as the flood levels stabilise.
Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul, chairperson of the Bangkadi Industrial Park, said his estate had asked the ministry for eight pumps with the ability to release 75,000 cubic metres of water per day.
Masato Otaka, economic minister from the Japanese embassy said that Tokyo was sending another package to Thailand next week, and was considering more measures.
