Bangkok city hall braces for flooding

BANGKOK, Sept 5 (TNA) – Bangkok Administration Metropolitan (BMA) has braced for northern run-off and high tide, placing 300,000 sandbags along the Chao Phraya River to protect communities outside flood prevention dykes. Bangkok deputy governor Chakkaphan Piew-ngam and BMA senior officials on Tuesday inspected flood prevention embankments at Chao Phraya River. He said the BMA has prepared for the northern run-off and more rainfalls from September to October. About 77-km flood embankments were built along the Chao Phraya River and it can prevent the water as high as 3.50 metres above the mean sea level from overflowing into riverside communities. However, he said about nine-kilometer river banks on private lands and areas, intruded by houses, built into the river were not protected, so the BMA built sand embankments to prevent flooding in 18 communities. The BMA is negotiating with residents for relocation and to dismantle houses, trespassing into the river. (TNA)