BMA to rush study to build erosion bank along Bang Khunthien coast
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration will speed up an environmental impact study for the construction of an embankment along the coast in Bangkok Khunthien district to prevent future sea erosion, a senior official said on Friday.
Sompong Wiengkaew, deputy BMA city clerk, said the study would be sped up so that it could be completed in June.
Sompong was speaking during a meeting on the progress of a project to drive concrete electric poles into the Bang Khunthien sea as the first stage in the project to slow coastal erosion.
Sompong said the pole-driving project would need to be done before the construction of the embankment could start.
According to Sompong, the 4.7-kilometre-long coast has seen some 900 to 1,000 metres of land eroded by strong waves from 1975 to 2013 – about seven metres yearly. He said the area was also subsiding at the rate of one to two centimetres yearly.
Sompong said the project has so far driven 1,300 concrete poles donated by the Metropolitan Electricity Authority into the sea in groups of 10 poles each. The 10 poles are formed into triangle, pointing to the sea to slow down waves. The poles had to be left partially above the water to warn fishing boats to keep away.
Sompong said the project would need 23,500 more poles to fill the entire 4.7-km coastal sea.