Military works hard to plug broken watergate
Military personnel have been working night and day to repair a watergate in Sing Buri, which has been letting loose water and further inundating four districts in neighbouring Lop Buri. The earlier proposal to use a long barge to block the currents has b
He added that smaller Navy vessels might be used to transport rocks to fill a large gutter in the riverbed, which would make the overall job easier.
Rocks, each weighing 2.5 tonnes, are being tipped over on both sides of the watergate, but the operation is slow because of the difficulty in transporting them through flooded areas.
A proposal to drop rocks using an Army helicopter has been floated, but Rear Admiral Phoolsak Ubonthepchai said it would be too expensive because at least 1,000 flights would be needed to fill the 10m-deep and 5m-wide gutter before repair work can follow.
The Navy and the Army are working with Royal Irrigation Department (RID) officials to fill the gutter and repair the watergate in 15 days as mandated by the government. The Bang Chom Sri watergate, which was damaged last week, separates the Chao Phraya river and Chiang Rak canal which travels through Lop Buri.
RID operations chief Montree Tantrakool said bags of rocks were being dropped from both sides of the watergate, while a decision to use helicopters was pending. “However high the cost, the use of Chinook helicopters is important and unavoidable,” he added.
