Death toll rises as floods threaten Bangkok
By South-East Asia correspondent Zoe Daniel, wires
Updated October 19, 2011 09:16:46
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The death toll in disaster-stricken Thailand has risen to 315 amid growing fears that sand barriers protecting the capital Bangkok will fail.
More housing and industrial areas on the outskirts of Bangkok are now being flooded as barriers give way to water flowing from Thailand's flooded north.
The government has ordered evacuations in more housing and industrial areas to the north of Bangkok as floodwaters leak through sandbag barriers.
On Tuesday army trucks evacuated tens of thousands of workers from the Navanakorn industrial estate, on the city's northern fringe, which was inundated after a flood protection barrier failed.
On Monday the key industrial estate, where 200,000 work in factories and live in apartments, had been dry and declared safe by the government.
Authorities warned residents in the low-lying eastern outskirts of Bangkok they might open sluice gates up river in an attempt to save Navanakorn from being totally inundated.
"It's necessary to save places of economic significance while sacrificing less important areas," said justice minister Pracha Promnog, director of the government's flood relief centre.
There is now renewed concern about whether flood barriers protecting the north-east of the city will hold.
The military is being used to shore up defences to try to force the water around the city to the sea, but it is gradually creeping closer to the main part of Bangkok.
A six to seven-kilometre flood wall is being built to the east to protect Bangkok's old airport at Don Mueang and the heavily populated area around it.
Some supermarkets are beginning to see shortages of some items due to flooded warehouses and cut roads.
The government has been forced to concede that the city centre may not be completely safe.
Bangkok's governor has asked residents to be vigilant and to plug leaks in the sandbagging operations.
Threat not over
Prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, facing the first major test of her two-month-old premiership, has expressed confidence that the low-lying capital will be spared from the deadly floods.
But Bangkok governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra is warning the threat to the capital is not yet past.
He says the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) will raise the floodwalls in the northern outskirts of the city by half a metre, using up to 1.2 million sandbags.
"BMA is expected to complete this task within 48 hours," Mr Sukhumbhand said, adding that the central government had promised one million sandbags and residents were being urged to help produce more.
"Currently the risk to Bangkok depends on these temporary dykes."
Three months of heavy monsoon rains have damaged the homes and livelihoods of millions of people and forced tens of thousands to seek refuge in shelters.
Currently about one third of Thailand's provinces are affected by the floods, which reached several metres deep in places.
Authorities say it is likely to be another month before the huge volume of water has flowed from the central plains into the sea.
The floods have disrupted production of cars, electronics and other goods in the kingdom, with factories and roads under water. The government estimates the disaster is likely to curb 2011 economic growth by 1.0-1.7 percentage points.
Most of Thailand main tourist attractions - including the southern islands of Samui, Phi Phi and Phuket - have been unaffected and Bangkok's main airport, Suvarnabhumi, is operating as usual. .. ABC/wires
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.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-18/thailand-death-toll-rises/3577514
By South-East Asia correspondent Zoe Daniel, wires
Updated October 19, 2011 09:16:46
=================================================
The death toll in disaster-stricken Thailand has risen to 315 amid growing fears that sand barriers protecting the capital Bangkok will fail.
More housing and industrial areas on the outskirts of Bangkok are now being flooded as barriers give way to water flowing from Thailand's flooded north.
The government has ordered evacuations in more housing and industrial areas to the north of Bangkok as floodwaters leak through sandbag barriers.
On Tuesday army trucks evacuated tens of thousands of workers from the Navanakorn industrial estate, on the city's northern fringe, which was inundated after a flood protection barrier failed.
On Monday the key industrial estate, where 200,000 work in factories and live in apartments, had been dry and declared safe by the government.
Authorities warned residents in the low-lying eastern outskirts of Bangkok they might open sluice gates up river in an attempt to save Navanakorn from being totally inundated.
"It's necessary to save places of economic significance while sacrificing less important areas," said justice minister Pracha Promnog, director of the government's flood relief centre.
There is now renewed concern about whether flood barriers protecting the north-east of the city will hold.
The military is being used to shore up defences to try to force the water around the city to the sea, but it is gradually creeping closer to the main part of Bangkok.
A six to seven-kilometre flood wall is being built to the east to protect Bangkok's old airport at Don Mueang and the heavily populated area around it.
Some supermarkets are beginning to see shortages of some items due to flooded warehouses and cut roads.
The government has been forced to concede that the city centre may not be completely safe.
Bangkok's governor has asked residents to be vigilant and to plug leaks in the sandbagging operations.
Threat not over
Prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, facing the first major test of her two-month-old premiership, has expressed confidence that the low-lying capital will be spared from the deadly floods.
But Bangkok governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra is warning the threat to the capital is not yet past.
He says the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) will raise the floodwalls in the northern outskirts of the city by half a metre, using up to 1.2 million sandbags.
"BMA is expected to complete this task within 48 hours," Mr Sukhumbhand said, adding that the central government had promised one million sandbags and residents were being urged to help produce more.
"Currently the risk to Bangkok depends on these temporary dykes."
Three months of heavy monsoon rains have damaged the homes and livelihoods of millions of people and forced tens of thousands to seek refuge in shelters.
Currently about one third of Thailand's provinces are affected by the floods, which reached several metres deep in places.
Authorities say it is likely to be another month before the huge volume of water has flowed from the central plains into the sea.
The floods have disrupted production of cars, electronics and other goods in the kingdom, with factories and roads under water. The government estimates the disaster is likely to curb 2011 economic growth by 1.0-1.7 percentage points.
Most of Thailand main tourist attractions - including the southern islands of Samui, Phi Phi and Phuket - have been unaffected and Bangkok's main airport, Suvarnabhumi, is operating as usual. .. ABC/wires
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.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-18/thailand-death-toll-rises/3577514
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