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BANGKOK, Sept 11 (The Nation Thailand/ANN): Defeated Bangkok governor candidate Suchatvee Suwansawat on Sunday accused city authorities of mismanaging canal drainage and allowing eastern Bangkok to flood.
The senior Democrat party politician said the Bangkok Metropolitian Administration (BMA) must take urgent to prevent worse flooding in the capital. He added BMA must discharge water from the canals to allow flood to drain in the eastern districts
Writing on Facebook, he said he is airing his opinions and problems he is facing as a resident and not as a politician.
"I can't leave home. If the water in Klong Prawet is not lowered or pumped out through Klong Phra Ong Jao, we will be underwater tomorrow," he wrote.
"There were no flood sensors on Lat Krabang Road and no water pumps had been installed", he added.
He said mistakes in water management had left Lat Krabang Road flooded with no relief in sight.
He said Lat Krabang Road, Luang Paeng Road and Hua Ta Ke roads had been inundated for several days now.
- He urged the BMA to take the following emergency actions:
- Deploy water pumps from districts not at risk to use on both sides of Lat Krabang, Luang Paeng and Hua Ta Ke roads. He said the roads are very long but few pumps were being used there. Worse still, officials were merely pumping floodwater back and forth without a comprehensive drainage plan.
- Urgently reduce water levels in Klong Prawet and tributary canals, which have been overflowing for three consecutive days. Suchatvee said the BMA strategy did not include lowering the levels of Klong Prawet and tributaries such as Klong Lam Pla Thiew, the main drainage network for eastern Bangkok. Their high water levels meant officials cannot drain floodwater from roads.
- Drain floodwaters via the Bang Pakong River in neighbouring Chachoengsao province.
- Install flood sensors in Lat Krabang to allow timely water-management actions
- Remove sandbags around drainage openings on Lat Krabang Road. The sandbags were not preventing water from coming out of sewers but instead stopping rainwater from draining, he said. - The Nation Thailand/ANN
