Thailand Live Tuesday 18 Oct 2011

The Thai flood situation is critical, so why not tell people?

While much of Thailand has suffered from the worst flooding in fifty years, government ministers have been emphatic about one thing: the city of Bangkok and the majority of its 12 million citizens would avoid the floods.

There was a wholesale change in tone this morning however, when the Governor of Bangkok Sukhumbhand Paribatra put out an urgent appeal for 1.2 m sandbags. He said “a huge amount” of water was now threatening the city. More strikingly perhaps, the Thai science minister Virachai Virameteekul said he had ordered the construction of 10,000 bamboo rafts to “help the people”.

We went to the northern suburbs this morning to investigate the situation. We didn’t get far before traffic snarled up, due to water-logged roads. By the time we reached the district Nava Nakorn, about 40 km from the heart of this sprawling metropolis, the severity of flooding was made crystal clear.

Nava Nakorn boasts one of the biggest industrial estates in the country, with 270 plants employing 270,000 employees – many of them live in the area. Today however, this part of the city had simply ground to a halt, its streets and thoroughfares cloaked in a rippling blanket of murky, brown water. We saw thousands of people making for higher ground, dragging all their earthly good possessions on pieces of polystyrene or metal tubs.

“It came up in the night,” said one woman, looking utterly exhausted. “I live on the second floor but it started to flood my rooms. I had to make a run for it – I had no choice.”

The Thai army together with hundreds of volunteers has launched a massive rescue operation in Nava Nakorn, but it risks being overwhelmed by the sheer scale of problem. Tonight, four districts in eastern Bangkok are under a foot and a half of water– an area twice the size of Singapore. If an extensive system of temporary levees are breached – this situation will get much worse.

I spoke to a senior government official. He told me “the situation is critical.” He had seen the data, he said, but said the government didn’t want to release it for fear of “panicking people”. I think many here would rather be forewarned.

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