Bangkok:
Bangkok has been declared a “disaster-affected zone” after torrential rain over the weekend flooded homes, shops and roads in Thailand’s capital city, prompting authorities to evacuate thousands of residents to safe shelters. Visuals posted by tourists and locals from the city show entire neighbourhoods inundated and people forced to wade through waist-high water after nearly 320mm (12.6 inches) of rain fell over two or three days last week.
This is nearly as much as the sprawling low-lying city usually gets in all of September.
Sunisa Manora, a resident of Pathum Thani (near Bangkok), told NDTV that the flooding was probably the worst situation she has seen in many years.
“Even major roads are flooded. We can’t even reach the BTS station (metro), and there are no tuk-tuks (e-rickshaws) available. The wait time for a cab (on Grab) is over one hour, and the fares are inflated. Food delivery has stopped due to inundation,” Manora said, describing the harrowing scenes.
“If you somehow manage to reach a nearby 7-11 (departmental) store, there are empty shelves. It’s very difficult for people with kids. Thankfully, many corporations have allowed working from home. But the rain has not stopped completely. It starts raining every few hours.”
News agency AFP has also reported that some stores ran out of supplies over the weekend as residents rushed to buy essentials. Some fresh produce was available at market stalls in some places, forcing residents to wade through waist-deep waters on foot to buy essentials from vendors, some of whom set up stalls with floating plastic boxes and drums.
Photo Credit: Reuters
Influencer Aryan Wadi posted a reel on his Instagram account from Bangkok airport, warning Indians to avoid any non-essential travel to Thailand. He reported that heavy showers had caused flight disruptions, leaving people stranded at the airport for hours.
Videos posted on social media showed people navigating waist-deep water on foot as the heavy rain brought vehicular transportation to a standstill. Residents also complained of power outages and shortages of drinking water.
Nattapon Mankean, 32, said his apartment complex in Bang Kapi, eastern Bangkok, had no electricity or water, so he and his girlfriend fled with two cats, one in a cage and the other in a specialised rucksack.
“Our phone batteries died, and we had no running water — everything became difficult. It was terrible; I couldn’t do anything. I had to get out,” he told the news agency AFP.
At least 5,901 people in Bangkok have moved to 234 evacuation centres, a city administration official said.
However, more than 80,000 people were unable to leave their homes in the capital due to flooding, Interior Minister Unsit Sampuntharat said.
He stated that relief efforts were mobilising mobile kitchens and boats. “The goal is to provide three meals a day to all residents throughout the … flooding period and for at least another seven after waters recede,” he added, amid intermittent showers on Monday.
Sitting on a river delta of soft clay just 1.5 m (5 ft) above sea level, heavily built-up Bangkok is sinking by several millimetres a year, while its population of more than 8.4 million often battles floods in its six-month-long rainy season.
The city is among 41 provinces across Thailand hit by floods since September 16 that killed at least eight people and disrupted more than 580,000 homes, the ministry said.
The floods could cause economic damage of at least 11 billion baht ($327 million) nationwide, with the losses likely to rise unless the situation improves, said Aat Pisanwanich of Rangsit University’s economics department.
“The flooding is expected to shave 0.3 percentage points off this year’s GDP growth, reducing growth to 2.1 per cent, and cut third-quarter growth by about 0.5 percentage points to 1.7 per cent,” he told news agency Reuters.
Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, which has lagged behind regional peers since the COVID-19 pandemic, expanded 1.9 per cent year-on-year in the year’s second quarter, but that was still down sharply from the previous quarter’s growth of 2.8 per cent.
Bangkok and the eastern region are likely to take the brunt of the impact, particularly wholesale and retail businesses, while industry and agriculture will suffer elsewhere, Aat added.
Further east, in the coastal province of Rayong, abutting a major industrial belt, authorities ordered evacuations on Monday after floodwaters swelled two reservoirs beyond their capacity.
Last year’s catastrophic southern floods, triggered by 630 mm (25 inches) of rain over three days, killed at least 145, inundated more than 33,000 homes and damaged critical facilities such as schools, hospitals and highways.
