Poor drainage, combined with heavy rains, is causing flooding throughout the resort and traffic problems on Sukhumvit Highway.

The Public Works Department of Pattaya once again came under criticism at the last meeting of the Pattaya City Council on September 29.

Mr. Tawit Chaisawangwong, member of the City Council, went so far as to ask Somsak Suraprasit, Director of the Public Works Department, if he felt he should resign due to his department not doing its duty properly.

This criticism stemmed from the recent rains, which caused many areas in Pattaya, and Sukhumvit Road in both South and North Pattaya to flood. Also flooded were the New Market in Na-Klua, the Rong Mai Kheed community and Krating Lai area.

This flooding caused considerable inconvenience and loss of property to hundreds of families and the city. The damage is estimated at many millions of baht.

Mr. Tawit said that if the civil servants had given attention to this problem, damaged would have been minimal.

He continued, saying that this is a frequent occurrence that the citizens can predict exactly where the flooding will occur when heavy rains fall.

The City Council has many times called upon the City Engineers to solve this problem and are now becoming impatient with their seeming uninterest. A number of the City Council Members agree with Tawit on the issue of replacing the present Head of the Public Works Department.

Somsak Suraprasit, Director of the Public Works, pointed out that the Department was aware of the problems and had installed pumps to empty the flooded areas. Somsak said that recent rains had been so heavy that the number of pumps was not enough.

He told the City Council that the Royal Roads Department had also cut the Public Works Department’s budget by 7 million baht for the road area in South Pattaya.

Drainage pipes are being laid in the area of Pattaya School Number 4, which will drain the water in the adjacent canal. The work on this should be finished by 1999.

As for the New Market area in Na-Klua, the wastewater treatment plant’s construction is blocking access to the area and the drainage of flood water. The Public Works is not able to do anything about this at present. The wastewater project is also laying pipes at Soi 13, Na-Klua, so the situation is the same.

When the wastewater treatment work is done, the City Engineers will be able to go in and solve the problems.

The wastewater treatment plant is also blocking access to the Rong Mai Kheed community and the Krating Lai area.

The houses are being flooded as they are at sea level and no preparation was made for the rise in water levels which the wastewater treatment plant would cause.

Pattaya Mayor Pairat Suthithamrongsawat told the City Engineers to solve the problem and not let it happen again. He said a large drainage ditch should be build to release trapped water.