Pouring billions into a sinking ship

The Titanic was a large iron ship. In hindsight, engineers would have recommended technical improvements, such as thicker sides, and ballast chambers which would not overflow when filled – one to another, and so on. However, the Titanic was cruising in icy waters and Mother Nature prevailed to sink it.

Similarly, the Bangkok region has many engineers looking at why it flooded in 2011 and what improvements could be done to try and allay future wet years. All years have monsoons, and 2011 was not the wettest in recent times. Similarly, ice forms in the North Atlantic each year. Mother Nature does not respect man’s best efforts at trying to restrict it. 

Granted, Bangkok has been a gargantuan investment. But that, in itself, is not justification for continually allocating funds in the quixotic quest to try and keep it dry. The focus now should be to find a suitable region of higher ground to move to. Better still would be relocating to several satellite cities – as there is no need to pile all of Thailand’s importance in to one giant city.

Yet, Thailand’s leaders won’t be looking seriously at the option of relocating the city to higher ground. Instead, they will be spending tens of trillions of baht over the next 15 years trying to keep the Thaitanic from sinking. Their children’s or grandchildren’s generation might start making the move, but by then their elders will have poured tens of trillions down the drain – and into well-connected and unscrupulous contractors’ pockets.

Kip Keino

Ban Nam Lat