It does not matter who you listen to or who you choose to believe in the government about the status of the flood in Bangkok. The fact is reports from independent journalists and TV news tell a tale of flood waters advancing about 2km inside Bangkok everyday.
Call it wishful thinking on the part of the government that inner Bangkok will remain dry, but the irresponsible comments saying ‘all is well’ simply is wrong. Anyone with a map and a pencil can see that the water is advancing daily and soon will head to lower ground in Bangkok.
If you look at the amount of water to the north of Bangkok, seeing it will take a month to pass, take into account evaporation and other things like water staying behind flooding rice fields, best case is the water will stop advancing in 2 weeks, or 28km depending on how you count. Either case that should cover the remainder of Bangkok except for the highest areas.
Add to that sabotage of water control by flooded out Thais hoping to drain water from their homes, and it becomes 2 against 1 to keep the dry part of Bangkok dry. In an effort to stop the sabotage some 14 year old video footage of the King outlining flood water control plans with the government of the time was aired several times. Those plans of 14 years ago are the reality of today.
As history tends to repeat itself, this is just another case of Thais reluctant to talk about approaching danger. The Phuket tsunami was one, and this appears to be the second. If this decision is being guided by money and not wanting to scare off tourists, then there are some deep moral and ethical issues that need to be examined.
Everyone is now attacking the government for not releasing up-to-date truthful information. This list includes other governments, tourist and travel networks, right on down to the poorest Thai. To top that off there was one report that relief supplies carried signs that said complements of Thaksin Shinawatra to try to keep from losing voter base. It is tough to lie to someone while looking them in the eye. This was not going to be a post about Thaksin but once again he only cares for himself so he is part of the mix.
The worst part is not knowing if the 2km per day advancement of the flood waters is constant. The reason is the higher elevations of Bangkok are flooding, and at some point that nearly flat grade will hit a slight slope that drops down up to 2 meters to central Bangkok. The speed that water advances will be faster but the volume is likely to remain the same.
Unfortunately it is times like this we are reminded that nature is in charge and nature will bring balance. Global warming and climate change are clearly part of this event, and that means more of the same will soon come. Bangkok was flagged as one of the first major cities in the world to suffer the effects of climate change, so it looks like the experts were right.
