Whole city at risk of flooding after opening of key sluice gate
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The government's snap decision under public pressure to raise a critical sluice gate in eastern Bangkok to one metre could expose the whole city to flooding.
“Such a fast drainage rate will make the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s [BMA] calculation that 19 districts in the capital will be safe completely inaccurate. They will be all inundated as a result,” Deputy Governor Theerachon Manomaiphiboon said yesterday.
If the gate stays open at that height, the Bangkok districts immediately at risk of flooding are Bang Kapi, Saphan Soong and Bueng Kum, all next to Klong Sam Wa district where the watergate in dispute is located, he said.
“The excess flood water being drained through Sam Wa Canal’s gate will travel to Saen Saeb Canal, which will overflow in all 50 Bangkok districts through underground links and sewer networks,” he said.
The government should declare a state of emergency so it can fully implement crowd control measures at key watergates and pumping stations to prevent angry mobs from forcefully stopping their operations, he added.
In response to the scuffle at the Sam Wa gate between officials and residents, the government yesterday set up a tripartite committee dealing with flood management to cope with individual leaks and conflicts over drainage rates.
The two other parties are the BMA and the Royal Irrigation Department, Deputy Governor Phornthep Techapaiboon said.
The committee, to be chaired by Pheu Thai Party secretary-general Jaruphong Ruengsuwan,
has a panel to communicate
with the local communities and explain how other areas not yet affected will be put at greater
risk of flooding.
The BMA, which operates the Sam Wa gate, has reportedly been unwilling to comply with the government. It insists that 70 centimetres is technically an appropriate level, but it agreed to open the gate to 1 metre after pressure from angry residents over the weekend.
The new committee was studying whether the 1-metre height of the gate would send excess flood water into two large industrial estates in Bang Chan and Lat Krabang. This is what Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra publicly claimed was the reason the Sam Wa gate should not be opened more than 70cm.
The residents are not yet fully happy with the gate’s height and still gather occasionally at the site to make sure it is not lowered.
BMA officials are trying to
repair both shoulders of the gate, which had been damaged by the mob on Monday night, letting through torrents of flood water.
