BMA prepares for coming wet season
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The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has put aside 5.8 million sandbags to brace for the upcoming rainy season and is inspecting the strength of billboards across the capital.
Deputy Bangkok Governor Amorn Kitchawengkul said yesterday the BMA should be able to release water within three hours if more than 60 millimetres of rain falls per hour. He said the BMA had also hired inmates from the Corrections Department to dredge up to 6,090 kilometres of drainage pipes and the job should be completed by July. The dredging was up to 42 per cent done, while up to 65 per cent of waterways and canals in the capital had been cleared.
Meanwhile, the BMA has joined the Department of Public Works (DPW) and its 50 district offices in checking the stability of billboards. Deputy Bangkok Governor Jumpol Sumpaopol said Bangkok initially had 1,600 large billboards on 150 key roads, but many unstable ones had already been removed.
Amorn said the BMA has a task force of 700 officials, 1,322 pumps, 54 water jets and 5.8 million sandbags to help ease flooding in Bangkok. Bangkokians can visit dds.bangkok.go.th, follow Facebook bkk.best or bkk_bests on Twitter to monitor storms.
