More rain, more flooding
in the Soi Wat Boon neighborhood.
Phasakorn Channgam
So Wat Boon residents may not be able to predict the weather, but
they can predict that when it does rain, their South Pattaya
neighborhood is going to flood. It happens every rainy season.
Deputy Mayor Verawat Khakhay made the annual pilgrimage to the low-lying
neighborhood Oct. 3 which is waterlogged again after the latest storm
three days earlier. He brought along Engineering Department workers to
pump out what flood-drain backup they could while issuing the same
apologies city officials have made for years.
Verawat ordered all the steel plates at an under-construction drainage
project removed and for rubber pipe to be laid underneath the soi so
that the water connects with the Najomtien Canal.
Verawat tried to console residents by saying many areas of the city got
hit with flooding due to inadequate and blocked drains, but said that
once workers eventually complete the drainage work, things should get
better. Of course, work on the project has been delayed six months so
far by bureaucratic red tape.
