Just north, workers were scheduled by mid-September to finish protecting another cornerstone of Thailand’s economy – Ayutthaya, the ancient capital which draws millions of visitors each year.
“All our main infrastructure is in good condition,” said Royol Chitradon, director of Thailand’s Hydro and Agro Informatics Institute.
The difference between 2012 and 2011, he says, is that the watershed area has been extended, widened, reinforced and rehabilitated, additional pumps have been installed to increase water flow out of populated areas and the water in the main dams was steadily reduced leading up to the start of the wet season in May.
Although areas in the north and west of the country have seen flooding recently – so too Bangkok – the monsoon season has not been half as ferocious as last year says Adityam Krovvidi, head of the Asia-Pacific office of Impact Forecasting, a risk modeling division at the World’s biggest insurance company Aon Benfield.
“Bangkok has already seen [the] near ‘perfect storm’ last year,” he said of the wet season, which included five tropical storms, already wet conditions in the south around the capital and a high spring tide out in the Gulf of Thailand.
In other words, these were one-in-a-hundred-year weather events, according to experts. Dutch flood expert Verwey says he has seen reports suggesting Thailand may only see the same freak patterns every 250 years. The problem for Thailand – and many other countries – is that these freak weather patterns are almost certain to get more frequent.
“In the future, land subsidence and climate factors could also contribute,” warns Krovvidi.
If Bangkok were not already ideally positioned for flooding – it lies at the low point of a country surrounded in the north, east and west by low-lying mountains – it is also sinking. The most pessimistic forecasts suggest parts of the capital could be underwater by 2030 as the increasing population sucks up ground water, and other environmental factors take their toll.
Combine that with a country that has lost half its tree cover in the past 70 years and you have the ingredients for a modern-day Atlantis, a similar situation facing Manila and Ho Chi Minh City, according to a joint report at the end of last year by the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and International Cooperation Agency of Japan.
Songsuda Adhibai, co-founder of S+PBA, an architecture firm that made headlines recently when it designed a Bangkok cityscape floating on water, says the Thai capital’s future flood problems are not just about building dykes and ferrying in sand bags. Long-term solutions are needed, she says, ones which plan ahead beyond just managing water and consider the whole layout and function of the city.
“Don’t ask [so] far ahead about serious flooding,” says Songsuda. “Bangkok is a city that doesn’t have a master plan.”
Steve Finch is a freelance journalist based in Bangkok. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Foreign Policy, TIME, The Independent, Toronto Star and Bangkok Post among others.
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Vic Matthews
The article should have been titled "IS BANGKOK THE NEXT ATLANTIS?." Not bad, although the exact effect of climate change has never been competently measured. It is reflected by the ambiguity of the subject in the article. Was this the 100-year perfect storm, the 250-year storm, government mismanagement or what? It's confusing to me and the author's postulations are weak and undermine the argument.
If you want to say it's climate change, go ahead and say it without contradicting yourself. Although the author raises valid points about the precarious state of Bangkok and surrounding economic estates it doesn't accomplish anything other than stir bogus fear. Bangkok will sink into the swamp no doubt, just like other cities built on swamps like New Orleans and Venice. And yet they are still cities…
Farang Cowboy
Nonsense. I've lived in Bkk for over a decade and was here for the flood. The flood was caused by Government mismanagement. They were warned to drain the run off in the spring and they refused. Now large amounts of the money that was supposed to go for projects to prevent this from happening again have ended up in certain politicians pockets. The city may be below sea level but the officials are even lower.
Padova
It was the worst luck that a genuinely elected government for just one week had to battle with flood problems that had developed over 50 years of incompetent army rule. Shiniwat will get slammed again this rainy season but some problems have no solution and Bangkok's geography/existence is one of them. Bangkok may be the first of several urban centers that will have to pack up like a refugee. This stress will not help Thailand's struggle to become a free country.
Nico Wojciechowski
Thailand needs to move the economic center out of Bangkok. Bangkok could stay still as the touristic capital of Thailand.
Sin Lok
Damn it transfer those harddisk factory to somewhere high up I need an upgrade!