Bangkok floods to ease early next month - PM
BANGKOK, Oct 29,AFP
Floods engulfing parts of the Thai capital should start to recede
soon, the prime minister said Saturday after barriers along Bangkok’s
swollen main river prevented a disastrous overflow. The city of 12
million people was on heightened alert because of a seasonal high tide
that was expected to coincide with the arrival of runoff water from the
central plains, where people have endured weeks of flood misery.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who has previously warned the
floods could last for weeks, said the authorities had expedited the flow
of runoff water from the north through canals in the east and west of
the capital.
“If everyone works hard ... then the floodwater in Bangkok will start
to recede in the first week of November,” Yingluck said in a weekly
radio and television address to the nation.
She said the overall flood situation in central parts of Thailand had
improved and volumes of water flowing through Bangkok’s main river, the
Chao Phraya, had decreased.
Yingluck’s two-month-old administration has faced public criticism
for giving confusing advice about the extent of the flood threat.
For a third day running there was minor flooding in Bangkok’s
riverside areas, including by the Grand Palace, but the high tide of 2.5
metres (eight feet) above sea level was lower than feared and most of
the city was dry. “I’m not too worried.
It’s only a little bit of water. It’s not similar to outside
Bangkok,” said Sidaphat Ausanarassamee, 32, standing behind a wall of
sandbags in front of her small wicker shop in Chinatown.”It affects my
business.
Nobody is buying anything,” she added, laughing, as children played
in knee-high water in the street and orange-clad monks snapped pictures
of the scene with their mobile telephones. Within Bangkok, residential
areas in the northern outskirts of the city, as well as on the western
side of the Chao Phraya river have so far been worst hit, with
waist-deep water in places.
The government announced it was moving its emergency flood relief
centre from the city’s second airport Don Mueang after rising water led
to a power blackout.Tens of thousands of residents have left Bangkok,
with many heading to coastal resorts away from the path of the water,
after the government declared a special five-day holiday.
The three-month crisis — triggered by unusually heavy monsoon rains —
has left at least 381 people dead and damaged millions of homes and
livelihoods, mostly in northern and central Thailand.
The Pentagon said Thailand had asked a US destroyer to extend its
stay at a main port to allow two American helicopters to survey the
deadly flood waters.Most of the country’s top tourist destinations and
the main airport have been unaffected although countries including the
United States and Britain have advised against all but essential travel
to Bangkok. French tourist Philippe Ponel, 24, on his first trip to
Thailand, was among those taking pictures of inundated streets in
Chinatown. “I think the people in Bangkok don’t fear the floods at all.
They just keep going on with their daily lives. I saw people cooking in
the streets with water all around them,” he said.
|