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| About 500 people block Nimitmai Road in Khlong Sam Wa district to demand the Khlong Sam Wa sluice gate be opened wider, from 70cm to 1.5m. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration eventually agreed to open the sluice gate by 80cm. TAWEECHAI TAWATPAKORN |
The overflow from northen runoff will threaten the industrial estate located in Min Buri district now that the gate has been opened wider.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra told reporters on Monday she had decided to order the city administration to lift the sluice gate at Klong Sam Wa wider to one metre after the protesters' actions.
About 1,000 residents living along Khlong 3 and Khlong 4 rallied at the sluice gate on Sunday night to demand authorities open the gate more, reasoning that the narrow opening had caused serious flooding in their comminities.
After a brief rally during the day, the same group of residents returned to the gate late Sunday night to remove sand bags in the flood wall at the dyke. Some used sledge hammers to try to demolish the gate. They dispersed after local officials agreed to lift the gate to 80 centimetres.
Trouble escalated again yesterday when the residents returned to the gate, blockaded a road near Hathainimit-Wat Sukjai intersection and demanded the gate be opened further to 1.45-1.5 meters.
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| Commuters step on to a bus in flooded Chaeng Watthana Road opposite the government offices complex. |
Some of the protesters formed a human chain and tried to break through block lines of riot police before Wicharn Meechainant, Pheu Thai MP for Min Buri, was called in to mediate the conflict.
The MP failed to convince the protesters to accept to the government's plea to keep the gate as it was.
Deputy Bangkok governor Thirachon Manomaipibul, said Ms Yingluck had ordered the BMA's Department of Drainage and Sewerage to widen the gate to one metre.
Bang Chan Industrial Estate, with more than 200 billion baht worth of investment, is one of the few industrial estates still unaffected by flooding.
Mr Thirachon said he had advised the government that widening the sluice gate would not only affect Bang Chan but also communities along Saen Saeb canal in Saphan Sung, Bang Kapi and Bungkum.
Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra shared Mr Thirachon's view. "Without a written order, I will not do it no matter how much the pressure," he said.
Anond Snidwongs, an academic on the water draining committee of the Flood Relief Operations Command (Froc), said the agency was concerned factories and low lying areas in Bang Kapi might be hit.
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An interprovincial bus is partly submerged near a bus terminal on Boromratchonnanee Road. |
The government has tried to maintain the water level in Saen Saeb canal near Bang Chan Industrial Estate at no more than one metre above mean sea level, and up to 0.25 metres above mean sea level in the Bang Kapi area.
Froc will have to try to control the water level in those areas by regulating the water flow at Khlong 8 and Khlong 9, so that run off from Khlong Sam Wa does not affect residents along the canal, Mr Anond said.
The Democrat Party yesterday urged the government to invoke a special law to deal with locals who try to disrupt the government's water drainage efforts to protect their own communities.
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A man fits a small camera atop a pole as a measure against theft around the area where he sells spirit houses in Taling Chan district. Many areas of the district are under water. |
Democrat spokesman Chavanond Intarakomalyasut said the party wanted to see the government take two key actions.
First, in areas that are not yet seriously flooded, the government should invoke a special law to manage conflicts between government officers trying to manage floodwater and locals who want to protect their communities from rising flood levels through intimidation.
After the government turned down the opposition's suggestion to invoke the emergency decree, it should instead invoke another law to keep residents from interrupting government flood drainage operations.
Second, in flooded areas, the government should ease the chaos that has ensued while evacuating flood victims.
For example in Bangkok's Bang Plad district, people had to struggle to get out of flooded areas themselves. No government officers were on hand to provide assistance to flood victims. Only soldiers were seen helping flood victims evacuate, said Mr Chavanond.
The government should also take earnest actions to solve the shortage of food, drinking water, public utilities, as well as the problem of inflated commodity prices.
"Right now the government has overlooked people's difficulties. They view it as something less significant than seeking a loan of more than 800-billion-baht to build up a new Thailand even though half of the country is still under water," Mr Chavanond said.
He also criticised the government for stockpiling donated goods at Don Mueang Airport and abandoning them there when floodwater flowed into the ground floor of the airport compound.
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Students paddle past the flooded ground floor of buildings at Kasetsart University in Bang Khen district yesterday. |
Meanwhile, Froc dissolved a committee overseeing flood drainage work chaired by Uthen Chartpinyo, a Pheu Thai MP, saying that the panel's work overlapped with the committee of water management in disaster areas chaired by Veera Wongsaengnak, a former deputy chief of the irrigation department.
A Froc source said the dissolution was in line with a request by executives at three industrial estates in eastern Bangkok _ Lat Krabang, Bang Chan and Suwintawong _ because the Uthane panel wanted to drain floodwater through the areas where the industrial estates are located.
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