City prepares for rainy season
With heavy downpours of up to 220 millimetres expected from May to July, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) yesterday called a meeting to hash out a flood prevention and mitigation plan.
After the meeting at the BMA Drainage Office, Bangkok Deputy Governor Amorn Kijchawengkul said drainage-pipe dredging in the capital was 37.78 per cent complete, while the Corrections Department’s drainage-pipe dredging work was 29.55 per cent finished. About 3.8 million sandbags have been reserved for use in case of flooding. Canal-dredging is 57.27 per cent complete, water-hyacinth clearing from canals is 58.95 per cent done, and water-pump installation in flood-prone areas had been completed, he said.
Amorn said the Thai Meteorological Department forecast a slightly higher than usual level of rainfall from May-July. Bangkok could be affected by a low-pressure area as well as a cyclone, so average rainfall was projected at about 140-180 millimetres per month in the period, and as high as 220mm in May. The city had capacity to drain rainfall at a rate of 60mm per hour, he said, adding he was confident there would be no repeat of the devastating flooding seen in 2011.
