The big bag theory

Ring out that resigning feeling and fear of flooding. Ring in the cleanup campaign and for the inner city, Christmas trees with small blinking electric light bulbs. 

The authorities are feeding us the good news that the flooding has receded and major streets are becoming dry. Evacuees are returning home. Soon, the October and November flood will become part of distant memory.

As streets in Bangkok are becoming dry, flooded communities at the rim and outside the capital city are isolated and forgotten. 

The only attention they can get is when they protest and remove the "big bags" _ those huge sandbags introduced by the government's Flood Relief Operation Command (Froc) since last month to impede and direct floodwater flow from certain parts of Bangkok.

Are flood-wearied residents selfish simply because they can no longer sacrifice and retain the floodwater for Bangkok? 

Or are they becoming a new symbolic act of the fight against inequality _ a last straw against overly pampered denizens of Bangkok's inner-city area, the so-called "CBD" Central Business District.

The feeling had been much different in early October when residents of Bangkok _ outer and inner _ were gripped by collective flood fear. 

The message at that time was that water would eventually flow down _ logically north to south _ to the Gulf of Thailand. 

All 50 districts would be flooded from 50 centimetres to two metres, depending on respective location and height above mean sea level. 

Class division in the City of Angels would be levelled by more than 10 billion cubic metres of northern runoffs. 

With humility and life-resigning feeling, the whole city prepared for the floods _ a quick but painful collective penalty by Mother Nature.

But there was a twist. Instead, massive water was channelled to the eastern and then, surprisingly, western areas _ the least irrigated part of the city. 

Then the big bags made their arrival and the inner part of Bangkok _ the heart of the country _ was saved, allowing residents of inner Bangkok to return to their usually overly pampered mentality. All at the expense of those living outside the big bags.

Is it sad to see our fellow countrymen wade through smelly water as high as their chest? Yes. Is it fair for them to endure the water for us? 

Definitely not. Are we ready to ask the government to remove the big bags and make the city vulnerable to floods?

Then, I start asking myself what is the original purpose of the big bags?

Are these fat white sandbags indeed a big wall or are they just smart irrigational structures our hydrologists devise to control the level and direction of water?

Not many of us can remember why the big bags were deployed in the first place. Last weekend, residents of Khlong Hok Wa who have been living in putrid water for two months demanded the big bags to be gradually, partially removed. 

They did not ask for Bangkok to be flooded. They just wanted the authorities to come and help drain water from their homes as Bangkok becomes dry and, therefore, the time to sacrifice should be over.

But that is wishful thinking. After the big bags are placed, flooded communities behind them become faceless people living behind a wall.

Recently, disaster management expert Assoc Prof Seree Supratid suggested that the big bags could be removed gradually without causing massive flooding as so many people fear if the authorities use more water pumps to drain the water. 

Flood-wearied residents took up his suggestion, and used it in negotiating with Froc and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA). 

Eventually, the authorities gave in to their demands, removing the barriers gradually and systematically, and draining water to Bangkok's irrigated canals that can absorb water.

I just wonder what would happen if these people did not speak up?

The big bags are not problematic. Lack of information is. Lesser information, lesser imagination. Without imagination, every road is blocked at the end.

I used to look at the big bags with scornful feeling as they were a symbol of inequality and violation of rights of communities living outside them. 

My apology if this sounds disrespectful. But now, I look at them as symbolic of a Lego toy played by dull boys who mistook these blocks as immovable walls.

But for those who hate the big bags so much, I believe these eyesore structures would soon disappear amid rising protest incidents by angry flood victims. It's too early to deliver that good news, however.

On Wednesday night, the authorities made a review of the flood prevention measures. After listening to it, I just felt like crying. 

The authorities said no sandbags would be set up next time. Instead, they would go for concrete structures.

So ring out the big bags. Prepare yourself to ring in the "Big Wall". I do not know what is better _ or worse _ between the two. My apology for being pessimistic but all I can imagine is a dynamite explosion.