The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has taken steps, including draining water out of canals in and around the city and procuring 2.5 million sandbags to reinforce flood walls, to brace for heavy rain and possible waterway overflows induced by tropical storm Noru, which is expected to hit some north-eastern provinces this Thursday.
Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said today (Monday) that, according to their scenario planning, the most worrisome aspects of the storm are the runoffs from the Pasak reservoir in Lop Buri and from the Chao Phraya reservoir, which will put pressure on the eastern part of Bangkok and both sides of the Chao Phraya River.
Water runoffs from the Pasak reservoir will be drained through the Lam Pla Thio and Phra Ong Chao Chaiyanuchit canals to prevent it from overflowing.
He said that water levels in all canals in Bangkok have fallenbelow the control level, after the Drainage and Sewerage Department accelerated efforts to drain water out of them into the Chao Phraya River, increasing their capacity to store more water from anticipated heavy rain this week, adding that 2.5 million sandbags will be available tomorrow and Wednesday and will be sent to reinforce the floodwalls along Chao Phraya River.
The governor said that riverside communities must help to protect themselves, by monitoring the floodwalls in their communities, while the BMA will provide logistical support by supplying them with sandbags and installing more water pumps if necessary.
He maintains that that it is more logical for people in communities to prevent local flooding than to allow them to be flooded, which requires subsequent rehabilitated.
The governor pointed out that accumulated rainfall in Bangkok for September has, so far, been measured at 744mm, with 922.5mm being recorded in Din Daeng district, despite the fact that Thailand has not yet been hit by a tropical stormthis year.
This is a clear sign of climate change and the weather conditions are bound to get more extreme in the future, said Chadchart.
He also identified Lat Krabang, Bang Khen, Min Buri and Don Mueang as more vulnerable to flooding than other districts in the capital.
