Residents along waterways blocking operations
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The lack of understanding among people living near sluice gates is causing a real problem because they are stopping authorities from opening the gates out of fear their residences will be submerged, the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry said.
Khanapot Wandee from the Water Resources Department said his team has studied areas along the canals in Bangkok and nearby provinces over the past few days and discovered that people living along waterways did not want the Royal Irrigation Department and Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) to open the water gates.
The ministry is sending teams to help talk to people living near canals 8 to 11 in the upper area of Bangkok as well as those living along the Khlong Sam Wa canal.
“We hope they will have a better understanding of the situation and let us open the water gates,” he said yesterday, adding that if the water gates could not be opened, then the plans to drain water in the east of Bangkok would be delayed.
The teams also found that each water gate in the canal was just 5 metres wide, which is not enough to drain water. In addition, he said, land in the capital was not on the same level, so that presented an obstacle.
“We are only able to drain 1.2 million cubic metres per day via canals in Bangkok and Samut Prakan,” he said.
So far, the Flood Relief Operation Centre has been directing waters through canals 1 to 13 and Khlong Hok Wa.
