BMA hopes to set up panel to prevent floods
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Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is hoping to set up a committee to help prevent floods in the long term.
“I will chair the committee myself,” Bangkok Governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra said yesterday.
He disclosed this plan after massive run-offs from the North wreaked havoc in several districts in the capital over the past few months.
“The current water-drainage system is designed to deal with heavy rain and natural high tide, not an influx of run-offs from upriver,” Sukhumbhand said, adding that he expected the government to work closely with the BMA to help prevent such crises in the future.
As of yesterday, some schools in Thawee Watthana and Klong Sam Wa districts were still inundated and students had to walk across temporary bridges to reach their classrooms.
“We will be discussing the matter with the government,” the governor said.
Meanwhile, more than 300 residents from Pathum Thani and Nonthaburi blocked Highway 340 Taling Chan-Suphan Buri Road to demand that the authorities pay attention to their plight.
The protesters said their communities had been flooded for a long time because the sluice gates of Laklee, Song and Lampho canals had not been opened wider and were letting more water into Nonthaburi’s Bang Bua Thong district.
“We want the gates to be opened by at least a metre, not just 38 centimetres,” a protester said.
Meanwhile, the Royal Irrigation Department has installed pumps in several housing estates and farmland in north Nonthaburi and Pathum Thani to help drain out the water.
