Floods threaten Bangkok, warns Thai premier

THAILAND’S prime minister has warned that rising floodwaters, which have wreaked havoc across the nation, are now threatening the capital, Bangkok, as the death toll from the worst monsoon rains in decades rose yesterday to 253.

Prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra said that the flooding – which has severed rail links with the north of the country, shut dozens of main roads and swamped ancient Buddhist temples in the city of Ayutthaya, damaging priceless artefacts – has reached a critical level.

Bangkok has so far been spared serious damage, but many fear it could be inundated as water surges southward from submerged northern rice fields towards the Gulf of Thailand.

That critical run-off is expected to be impeded by high ocean tides in mid-October, and tropical storm Nalgae is also forecast to bring more rain to the region in the days ahead.

In a radio message yesterday, Shinawatra said authorities were hoping to ease the crisis by installing up to 400 water pumps along the Chao Phraya River, which snakes through Bangkok, to help push the expected surge towards the sea. Seven canals will also be dug on the outskirts of the city, she said.

Shinawatra said government agencies were struggling to cope because “the water volume is extraordinary and is beyond expectations”.

“It is now going to have a direct impact on Bangkok,” she said in a televised speech on Friday evening.

Bangkok’s governor, Sukhumbhand Paripatra, said the situation in the capital – where authorities have piled thousands of sandbags along the banks of rising rivers – was under control.

Bangkok is a popular destination for tourists from around the world and attracts millions of western backpackers each year.

Paripatra said that he had ordered city officials to prepare for evacuations if necessary.

The city government has also been stocking up on emergency supplies of food and water.

Shinawatra visited a pumping station on the outskirts of Bangkok yesterday, and said she believed a series of drainage tunnels under the city would be able to handle the flood threat.

Thailand’s department of disaster prevention and mitigation said 253 people have been killed in the disaster, mostly from drowning, since a series of tropical storms began hitting the south-east Asian nation at the end of July.

It said eight million people in 60 of Thailand’s 77 provinces have been affected by floods and mudslides during that time, and three million acres of agricultural land have been badly damaged by the waters.

Last week in Ayutthaya, north of Bangkok, Japanese automobile giant Honda Motor Company suspended production for one week after parts of its factories there were submerged by floodwaters, resulting in hundreds of workers being laid off.

At least 43 factories in one of the city’s industrial zones have shut down after the rising floodwaters damaged equipment and prevented nearly 15,000 workers from accessing the plants.

The floods are proving a major test for Shinawatra’s new administration, which only took office in July.

The government has set up an emergency flood relief headquarters at the city’s Don Muang airport.