Angry flood victims stage multiple protests
Frustrated flood victims - many of whose homes have been under water for a month now - staged no fewer than four protests yesterday to demand more action be taken to tackle inundation in their areas.
A group of residents of the Setthakij housing estate off Phetkasem Road in western Bangkok rallied and called for immediate drainage of flood water from the estatel. They said the central areas of the complex were under up to 100 cm of water, while the entrance was under 50 cm of water.
In Pathum Thani, 200 residents of two estates in the Rangsit area gathered to meet with municipal officials to press for immediate solutions, including deploying 10 water pumps and laying a new sandbag barrier. They dispersed after being promised that both estates would be dry within five days.
Off Soi Chaeng Watthana 14, a group of residents gathered and demanded that concrete measures be adopted, otherwise they would gather again on December 1. They received a similar promise of action from senior officials who met them at the protest site.
A group of residents from the Garden Home housing estate in Phaholyothin Soi 60 in northern Bangok gathered outside the government’s Flood Relief Operations Centre asking it to review several existing measures and that flood gates in the Song and Sam Wa canals be opened by another 30 cm.
Science Minister Plodprasob Surassawadee said he could not promise the flood water at Garden Home would be gone by December 5, but vowed to look into the many points raised by the residents and to cover the costs of flood-prevention measures they had initiated on their own.
A protest leader, Adisak Srisapphakij, said the residents were mulling criminal complaints of dereliction of duty against FROC and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), as well as a lawsuit demanding compensation from both agencies, possibly along with a petition against them to be lodged with the Central Administrative Court.
Meanwhile, Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra accused FROC officials of encouraging flood victims to illegally raise gates across the Phraya Suren Canal by another 50 cm to a level of 1.5 metres, resulting in waters in areas to the south – home to 37,000 people – increasing by 3 cm. The gate’s opening had been restored to 1 metre, he said.
He also called on FROC director and Justice Minister Pracha Promnok to clarify what the governor said was photographic evidence that a FROC official led a group of people to shoo away water officials and raise the gates to the 1.50-metre level.
The BMA’s disaster-analysis centre, meanwhile, said Don Mueang Airport remained in a “state of crisis” despite flood water receding by 6 cm. The centre also cited reports from many police stations that flood water remained relatively high in western Bangkok.
Royal Irrigation Department director-general Chalit Damrongsak said all main roads in western Bangkok would be passable by the end of this month, and that flood water in low-lying areas of the capital’s west would begin to recede “continuously” in December.
