People in 27 riverside communities in Bangkok have been warned to prepare for possible flooding this weekend, with heavy rains expected from Friday until Monday.
The communities, which are home to about 1,200 families, are located in areas along the river that don’t have a flood embankment, the Nation reported.
Even an embankment doesn’t guarantee that an area won’t flood though, as Sukhothai just found out.
“The water is seeping in from under the embankment,” Science Minister Plodprasob Surassawadee said yesterday in his capacity as the chair of the Water and Flood Management Commission (WFMC).
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said yesterday that authorities will begin to focus on containing flooding in areas downriver from Sukhothai.
“We are now assessing the situation and trying to prepare solutions for all possible scenarios,” she said. Asked whether her government would be able to “control flooding,” she said, “I can only say that we are doing our best,” the Nation reported.
Sanya Cheenimit, director of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s (BMA) Department of Drainage and Sewerage, also advised all 50 of Bangkok’s district to be on alert for flooding this weekend, the Bangkok Post reported.
He stressed that the 27 riverside communities outside the flood embankment – including communities Rama VI, Wat Bang Khlo Nok, Soi Samsen 13, Santichon Songkroh community, and Dao Khanong – were most at risk.
