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‘Bangkok will escape floods’
The government expressed confidence Sunday that Bangkok will escape Thailand’s worst flooding in decades, as the capital’s elaborate barriers held strong and floodwaters began receding from submerged plains to the north.
The government expressed confidence Sunday that Bangkok will escape Thailand’s worst flooding in decades, as the capital’s elaborate barriers held strong and floodwaters began receding from submerged plains to the north.
Agriculture Minister Theera Wongsamut said the largest mass of runoff water flowing southward had passed through Bangkok’s Chao Phraya river and into the Gulf of Thailand, and that the river’s levels would rise no higher. He stopped short of saying the threat to Bangkok had passed completely.
The capital is being shielded by an elaborate system of flood walls, canals, dikes and underground tunnels. But if any of the defenses fail, floodwaters could begin seeping into the city of 9 million people.
“People have faith these walls will work,” a saffron-robed monk named Pichitchai said as he peaked over stacks of sandbags added in recent days to help protect a Buddhist temple along a canal in northwestern Bangkok.
