Phasakorn Channgam
Pattaya would nearly triple the width of drainage pipes underlying
downtown streets under a new flood-drainage master plan being drafted by
the city.
Wirat Jeerasriphathun,
director of the Pattaya Engineering Department.
At an Oct. 28 meeting of city officials with the
Center for Water Engineering and Infrastructure Research (CWEIR) at King
Mongkut’s University of Technology in Bangkok, Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome
said part of the plan being drafted by university consultants calls for
water-drainage “tunnels” 2.3-3 meters wide running from second road to
the sea. Current drainage pipes measure only 0.8-1.2 meters wide, he
said.
The pipe measurements are the first details to be released about the new
storm-drainage master plan, which is not due to be completed by the
CWEIR for another three months. If the city can obtain funding for the
new system - and a price tag still has not been determined - work could
begin before October.
“When the system is completed, Pattaya’s floods will gradually decrease
and be permanently eradicated in the future,” the mayor pledged.
Last month’s hearing, the second of many expected to
be convened, was mostly aimed at reviewing the damage caused during the
just-completed rainy season. Wirat Jeerasriphathun, director of the
Pattaya Engineering Department, reviewed the flooding problems caused in
neighborhoods throughout the city to provide what the mayor called “raw
data” for the academics’ study.
Itthiphol said the CWEIR study will look at flooding in two main areas
of the city: Along Sukhumvit Road and its neighboring communities, and
downtown from the Naklua Canal along Third Road, and Second Road and Soi
Buakaow.
Pattaya already has 40 million baht in emergency flood-relief funds on
hand, but the rest of the funding will have to come from at least two
different agencies. That left audience members skeptical of Itthiphol’s
claim that the entire new drainage system could be ready by next year’s
rainy season.
