Bangkok

Bangkok – that sinking feeling

Published

4 weeks ago

July 29, 2019

Bangkok – that sinking feeling | The Thaiger

The mighty Chao Phraya runs through the central plains and down into the flooding delta before heading out into the Gulf of Thailand. Great place for a city.

Not surprisingly Bangkok suffers floods whenever the big rains come with most of the low-lying land around the delta only averaging around 1.5 metres above sea level.

Whilst the city used to have a complex system of canals to help carry the floodwaters out of the city, most of them have now been filled in whilst the urban mass has spread, now housing around 10 million people. The city has also tried to counter the sever floods by installing larger drains, bigger pumps and trying to manage the Chao Phraya’s floods habits better.

But the metropolis is now being threatened by two major threats.

Firstly, the land is sinking. The city of Bangkok was developed on soft clay land where the Chao Phraya meets the Gulf of Thailand. After the fall of Ayutthaya (north of Bangkok) to the Burmese Empire in 1767, the newly crowned King Thaksin established his new capital at the port town, which became the base of the Thonburi Kingdom and then later the Chakri dynasty (on the east side of the Chao Phraya).

As Bangkok grows, the accumulated weight of the city is literally pushing Bangkok into the soggy clay it’s built on.

The National Water Resource Commission approved a US$412 million plan to combat drought and floods as well as improve drainage in May this year but fending off rising waters from the city when the rains come will become an increasingly impossible task, no matter how much money is thrown at the problem.

The other threat is the rising oceans and the effects of climate change, already being detected and noted in the city’s predictions and disaster plans.

Under a major case study the city is expected to experience around 40% inundation by an extreme rainfall event and 15 centimetre sea-level rise by 2030.

A World Bank report entitled ‘Climate Risks and Adaptation in Asian Coastal Megacities’ identified Bangkok – as well as Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City – as having experienced nearly a two-fold increase in damage costs between 2008 and 2050 due to land subsidence. It is predicted that almost 70% of the increase in flooding costs in 2050 for Bangkok will be due to land subsidence.

Short of physically relocating much of Bangkok to higher ground, the city’s planners and engineers have limited time to work out the best way to protect the ‘Venice of the East’ from ending up like its Venetian counterpart.

Bangkok - that sinking feeling | News by The Thaiger

PHOTO: Floods in Bangkok – Khaosod English

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Bangkok

Airports of Thailand block entrance to new Central Village at Suvarnabhumi

Published

2 days ago

August 24, 2019

The Thaiger & The Nation

Airports of Thailand block entrance to new Central Village at Suvarnabhumi | The Thaiger

PHOTO: The Nation

Please be seated and fasten your seat belts due to severe turbulence at the front of the almost-open Central Village “luxury outlet” shopping area next to Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok.

A dispute between Airports of Thailand and Central Pattana, the owners of Central Village, has hit some mid-air turbulence after AOT officials set up tents blocking the entrance of the hew shopping precinct to open on August 31. The AOT claims the outlet “trespasses the flying zone of Suvarnabhumi Airport” next door.

AOT president Nitinai Sirismatthakarn says he sent officials to inspect the disputed area earlier and found that Central Village was building a road connecting the outlet to the main road.

“The road they are building trespasses the airport’s flying zone. The land was assigned to AOT’s administration by the Treasury Ministry.”

Nitinai added that Central Village also applied for permission to lay a water pipe through the land, which cannot be approved because this, too, would violate flying zone regulations.

Meanwhile, Central Pattana issued a letter claiming its construction strictly follows current urban laws and regulations, and that it had received approval from related agencies before commencing all work.

The letter also said that applying for tap water and electricity connections from responsible authorities is a fundamental right to basic infrastructure, which every citizen is entitled to.

SOURCE: The Nation

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Bangkok

Thai DJ rounds up stray cats then films killing them for payment

Published

3 days ago

August 23, 2019

The Thaiger

PHOTOS: khaosod.co.th

A female DJ has been charged over the killing of 27 stray cats at her home in Thon Buri, according to Khao Sod, a Thai online news portal.

According to the police investigation, Miss Wararat Krasae, better known as ‘DJ Sun’, picked up stray cats found on the streets into her home before killing them.

The arrest followed several complaints from a group of cat lovers who claimed that the suspect had killed 27 cats and posted video clips online. She was selling access to the videos on an ‘underground’ website in exchange for bitcoin payment, according to the police report.

SOURCE: khaosod.co.th

Thai DJ rounds up stray cats then films killing them for payment | News by The Thaiger

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Bangkok

Two people and 1,000 chickens die in Pathum Thani collision

Published

3 days ago

August 23, 2019

The Thaiger & The Nation

Two people and 1,000 chickens die in Pathum Thani collision | The Thaiger

PHOTO: คนช่วยคน จ.ปทุมธานี สายด่วน 1669

Two trailer trucks have collided in Pathum Thani, to the north of Bangkok, killing two people and around 1,000 chickens.

The driver and a female passenger were heard screaming for help as their vehicle burst into flames. The chicken were being transported in the back of the truck.

Police were alerted at 3.10am about the incident on the Thanya Buri-Wang Noi road at an intersection in Moo 5 village of the Klong Luang district. Fire fighters took about an hour to contain the blaze. The charred bodies of the driver and his female passenger were found in the cabin of the truck.

The Nation reports that the trailer truck smashed into the back of another truck that had stopped at a red light.

25 year old Siripong Malimart, the driver of the 10 wheel truck waiting at the traffic lights, told police that he was also carrying chickens from Chaiyaphum to Chon Buri’s Si Racha district and had stopped at the red light when the other truck slammed into his truck.

According to The Nation, he said he turned the emergency lights on and stepped on the brake now and then so that vehicles behind him could see the brake lights. He said he did not understand why the trailer truck hit the rear of his truck apparently at full speed.

Police suspect that the trailer truck driver dozed off at the wheel.

SOURCE: The Nation

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