- Published: 14/09/2012 at 12:00 AM
- Writer: Post Reporters
Water from the North is surging toward the Central Plains despite attempts to curb its volume.
The Royal Irrigation Department yesterday said Chai Nat, Sing Buri, Ang Thong, Ayutthaya and Pathum Thani that are situated downstream from the Chao Phraya dam in Chai Nat stand to be affected by the Chao Phraya overflowing.
- Related: Downstream residents prepare
- See also: How vendors cope
The department has boosted discharge at the dam to 1,800-2,000 cubic metres per second to drain water upstream in Nakhon Sawan province and also to prepare for heavy downpours expected to continue until next Monday.
It predicts water levels downstream of the dam will rise by 25-50 centimetres.
Yesterday, the Chao Phraya River started to overflow in the tambon Jampa Lor area of Muang Ang Thong district, Ang Thong province, and in the tambon Ban Ngew area of Sam Khok district, Pathum Thani province. Overflow has continued in Bang Ban district of Ayutthaya for a week.
Sujarit Khunthanakulwong, head of the Department of Water Resources Engineering at Chulalongkorn University, said water would reach Bangkok in seven to 10 days and it may cause problems in the capital if it rains heavily from today until Monday as the Meteorological Department has predicted.
Seree Supratid, a lecturer on disaster management at Rangsit University, thinks floods will be limited in Bangkok due to its good flood prevention facilities.
He said heavy rains are the key factor for determining whether there will be flooding in the capital because this may exceed the city's drainage capacity.
In some areas, it may take six to 10 hours to drain the water.
Otherwise, Bangkok will stay safe, said Assoc Prof Seree.
However, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has put all 50 districts in the capital city on alert for possible flooding.
Bangkok deputy governor Malinee Sukvejvorakij said yesterday staff of all districts were told to install water pumps in flood-prone areas so that rainwater can be quickly drained away.
The 1,200 people in 27 communities of 13 districts not protected by floodwalls along the Chao Phraya River should be ready to move their belongings to higher ground, she said. The BMA has already drained water from major canals.
Meanwhile, authorities are trying to reduce water flow from northern tributaries of the Chao Phraya River that pass through the Central Plains.
Kitti Tancharoen, assistant governor of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, said the state enterprise had cut the discharge of the Bhumibol dam in Tak province to 1 million cu/m per day. The dam holds 7,211 million cu/m of water. It is 54% filled and can receive 6,251 million cu/m more.
The Sirikit dam in Uttaradit province has stopped discharges to divert water from the Yom River to the Nan River. The dam holds 5,884 million cu/m of water. It is 62% filled and can receive 3,626 million cu/m more.
The Yom River flows into the Chao Phraya River but it is not controlled by any dams.
Wim Rungwattanajinda, secretary to the PM's Office Minister, yesterday said the government was diverting water from the Yom River to the Nan River where the Sirikit and Naresuan dams are. The diversion is taking place through Khlong Hok Bat canal that adjoins the Nan River in Phichit province. Phichit and Phitsanulok provinces are receiving floodwaters from the Yom River in Sukhothai province.
The river overflowed yesterday in tambon Rang Nok area of Sam Ngam district of Phichit. People in Pho Prathap Chang, Bung Na Rong and Pho Thale districts were warned of possible inundation.
In Phitsanulok, situated between Sukhothai and Phichit, floods hit six out of nine districts due to both the overflow of the Yom River and persistent rain. Floods affected Phrom Phiram, Muang Phitsanulok, Bang Rakam, Chat Trakan, Nakhon Thai and Wang Thong districts.
The Yom River is subsiding upstream in Phrae and Sukhothai provinces.
The heart of Sukhothai remains inundated after the Yom River overflowed, breaking through its levee last Monday.
Big sandbags and gabions are have been deployed to plug the levee. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was in Sukhothai yesterday, said water could be pumped out of the heart of Sukhothai in two days.
Share your thoughts
- Discussion 1 : 14/09/2012 at 05:02 PM
-
Disc18 Orange. 'Sizeable disaster relief budget'... Nice terminology.
$11.6 BILLION was secured in order to prepare the country for the floods.
0.25% of that money was spent. And in every case investigated, graft was found - and Peua Thai MPs were implicated (don't worry, the investigations have been halted).
The difference between this government and others is that THIS government made an election PROMISE to the people and once again, that promise turns out to be empty.
- Discussion 2 : 14/09/2012 at 03:47 PM
-
we are pleased to pay tax to develop country rather than give to politician.we should call corruption season than raining season.
- Discussion 3 : 14/09/2012 at 02:44 PM
-
Why is the water coming so rapidly .Dams and lack of anything to absorb it.Stop building dams to solve your problems and start planting trees .I know it isnt a quick fix but the real answer rarely is .
- Discussion 4 : 14/09/2012 at 01:38 PM
-
All the people criticizing and blaming the current government for the annual monsoon downpour and subsequent flooding seem to selectively forget that many of the problems arising from the annual monsoons are in large part due to insufficient water management of past governments. Surely if applying the same logic and finger pointing then the major flooding during last years monsoon season would be down to Abhisit and the Dems for failing to adequately ready the countries water ways for the possibility of great floods. Who would have predicted that the water ways would fail in the face of a natural disaster on that scale then or today? The current government is tackling the problem face on and having secured a sizable disaster relief budget in face of the opposition is now far greater prepared to tackle the problems than last year.
- Discussion 5 : 14/09/2012 at 01:35 PM
-
Ian dis#3, glad you cleared the distinction up. Really not hard to understand if you want to. Putting into local context, I live with Klong Rangsit facing me and Klong 3 on my left. I have water up to my front pouch every raining season as long as I lived there. Like you explained, the drainage is simply not up to speed with the deluge. However it will eventually drained out after few hours and can be improved but not eliminated as you said. Last year flood forced me to evacuate and stayed out for 2 months. Enough have spoken of the reasons. Still many choose to ignore simple reasoning and just intent to gain political mileage from this.
- Discussion 6 : 14/09/2012 at 01:15 PM
-
Discussion 5. Isn't it time that you posted a relevant comment.
- Discussion 7 : 14/09/2012 at 12:39 PM
-
"I have seen the Banglampoo district knee deep in water for a day..." You must be awfully short, since I used to live there and even during floods in the 1980s never saw it more than about 20cm.
- Discussion 8 : 14/09/2012 at 12:05 PM
-
What can anyone say to Thailand about this ?.
You listened to the lies,
You let them take the money,
Now you have to pay the price.
Why is Yingluck STILL visiting every flood site ?. Since she took on the responsibility herself, she should be chairing meetings and tasking people to take action - not distracting all the authorities just so she can do these ridiculous posed photo ops.
Tell me red-shirts, do you actually think she is helping them cope ?.
- Discussion 9 : 14/09/2012 at 11:18 AM
-
Lazarisbk you took the words right out of my mouth,A well choreographed pose she deserves an Oscar for it.The sad thing is only 4 days ago here experts were predicting no floods this year and here we go again.Not even Bangkok can be rescued.For those of you that say you cant stop it I suggest you go to Holland or the Norfolk broads and have a look to see that it can be done but you need a will ,some money and some common seance the latter is missing here and the money has gone.You need a consensus to achieve the will part and I do not see much agreement for what needs doing.
- Discussion 10 : 14/09/2012 at 11:05 AM
-
Khun Seree said "heavy rains are the key factor for determining whether there will be flooding in the capital"... a first grader can tell you that.. is he actually a lecturer or a student?
- Discussion 11 : 14/09/2012 at 10:55 AM
-
we are drowning. we are drowning from the lies graft corruption n ineptitude of the Yingluck government. and we could also drown from the floods
from iPhone application.
- Discussion 12 : 14/09/2012 at 10:24 AM
-
A yes the classic Yingluck pose .Her standing pointing pretending she knows what is going on .Just like last year .
- Discussion 13 : 14/09/2012 at 09:56 AM
-
D#5 Frith: You must be new here :) This is one of top 100 things PT fans says when they're favorite PM loses face and embarrassed, Actually the PT red army are blaming Khun Abhisit for the current flood, they said the main reason for the occurrence was he kept some water from the last disaster.
PM Yingluck took an arrow to the knee now by her undetermined statement "There will be no flooding in Bangkok in 2012" and false promise to the Japanese businesses and government. This flood is nothing compared to last one so I am sure now the already distributed Bt120billion anti-flood budget went to Phua-ThakSink project.
- Discussion 14 : 14/09/2012 at 09:43 AM
-
"...install water pumps in flood-prone areas so that rainwater can be quickly drained away..."
WHERE will the pumps pump the water to? I get this manic picture of floodwaters being pumped back and forth from Nonthaburi to Lak Si to Chatuchak and back again. When the water level in the river exceeds the level of the surrounding land, there is really no place to put the excess water.
The monkey is out of cheeks.
- Discussion 15 : 14/09/2012 at 09:04 AM
-
Flood prevention, like Bangkok's traffic, always generate plenty of experts.
- Discussion 16 : 14/09/2012 at 08:54 AM
-
the great chinese noble peace nominee no luck will be in krabi this weekend given a seminar on flood prevention and awareness,it might have to be cancelled due to flooding ?
- Discussion 17 : 14/09/2012 at 08:46 AM
-
Isn't it time for Abhisit "Mark" Vejjajiva to head towards those islands that are sinking beneath water?
- Discussion 18 : 14/09/2012 at 08:26 AM
-
Another successful photo op for Miss Yingluck
- Discussion 19 : 14/09/2012 at 08:08 AM
-
People in these comments seem unable to distinguish between flooding causes by surface water moving down river and overflowing, and flooding cause by heavy rainfall exceeding the capacity of local drainage.
My house in England sits at the top of a 900 foot high hill, yet in winter my garden and the road are often flooded. Quite simply the rain falls faster than the road drains can clear the water.
In Bangkok, with no upriver water involved, I have seen the Banglampoo district knee deep in water for a day, simply from a torrential downpour.
This type of flooding can never be prevented by flood barriers etc, it is a localised problem that can only be solved by improved sewers and road drainage. Very difficult to do in a heavily built up area, and definitely not possible to do quickly.
- Discussion 20 : 14/09/2012 at 08:00 AM
-
There will be no flooding in Bangkok in 2012......err.....OK there will be some flooding in the North of the city...err...OK we can expect flooding in Bangkok however we will remove it within days.....err....OK run the waters coming!!!!!!Do these clowns actually believe the things they tell people?
- Discussion 21 : 14/09/2012 at 07:38 AM
-
"Seree Supratid, a lecturer on disaster management at Rangsit University, thinks floods will be limited in Bangkok due to its good flood prevention facilities."
"He said heavy rains are the key factor for determining whether there will be flooding in the capital because this may exceed the city's drainage capacity."
Yes and the Easter Bunny is real too! That is the great thing about opinions, everybody has them..too bad most of them are contradictory.
"Big sandbags and gabions are have been deployed to plug the levee. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was in Sukhothai yesterday, said water could be pumped out of the heart of Sukhothai in two days." ....OK, here we go again with the pulling predictions out of a hat again. Why not actually start doing things you can to prevent most of this from occurring in the future.....OH Wait...forgot..TIT
Bangkok Post
