Officials deflect blame as city’s poorly maintained infrastructure fails again
In a city where even an hour of heavy rain floods main arteries, last
weekend’s 12-plus hour downpour brought Pattaya to its knees as its
flood-control infrastructure again proved unable to keep up. This lonely
car on Sukhumvit Road is just one of the many casualties of a city
underwater.
Phasakorn Channgam
In a city where even an hour of heavy rain floods
main arteries, last weekend’s 12-plus hour downpour brought Pattaya to
its knees as its flood-control infrastructure again proved unable to
keep up and public officials either pointed fingers at other causes or
simply weren’t talking.
The Sept. 10-11 monsoon, which lashed Pattaya with
more than 23 cm. of rain in 12 hours, brought record flooding to
virtually all of the city, submerging South and Second roads in 1.5
meters of water, making parts of Sukhumvit Road impassable and
inflicting what one resident termed “carnage” on East Pattaya as raging
waters washed away even parked motorbikes.
Chonburi Gov. Wichit
Chatpaisit (left) surveys the flooding in South Pattaya.
As Pattaya Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome, Banglamung
District Chief Chawalit Saeng-Uthai and Chonburi Gov. Wichit Chatpaisit
went on a publicized disaster-area tour, they had very little to say to
the press.
The root cause of the severe flooding was obvious to
everyone: the city’s flood-control and drainage system is not only
inadequate, it’s so badly maintained that garbage, overgrowth and broken
pipes can turn even moderate storms into damaging and expensive floods.
However city officials - who just six days earlier rewarded the city’s
drainpipe cleaners with free food and an offer of city housing for their
supposed good work - cite other factors than the trash seen clogging
drains throughout the city.
Chatpaisit claimed that the amount of rain that fell
was simply too much and that had the storm been smaller, flood
mitigation would have kept up.
Itthiphol pointed to the canal in South Pattaya that
is supposed to handle much of the runoff in that area. Trash piled near
its origin at the Camelot Hotel blocked water from Sukhumvit Road from
entering the canal, backing up water throughout East Pattaya, he said.
Buildings constructed on the canal’s banks have encroached on the
waterway and near its terminus at the Siam Bayshore Hotel, Itthiphol
added, weeds and other growth have narrowed the canal.
Raging waters in the Khao
Noi Community are so strong, they wash away even parked motorbikes.
The mayor failed to mention that the city had
promised to clear such obstructions during a much-ballyhooed “crackdown”
on canal-area building owners in October 2009. Wichit bailed out the
mayor, pledging that this time officials will definitely clear the canal
and fine offenders.
Also left unmentioned was the decision by the city’s
water treatment plant to close off a Walking Street pipeline Aug. 30 due
to a broken valve. That pipe normally takes water from the entertainment
district and beachfront back to the Soi Buakaow plant and then out to
sea.
Clogged drains, obstructed canals and broken valves
all took their toll on the city during the flood. People and vehicles
were stranded from Chaimongkol Temple to Soi Bonkot’s Moom-Aroi
restaurant, from Soi Wat Thamsamakkhee to Traguun Road and from Soi Khao
Talo to Soi 10, where garbage was the only thing racing down side
streets.
Raging floods and lakes of standing water did even
more damage. Coconut trees fell along Beach Road, sidewalks collapsed in
South Pattaya, holes appeared along the entire expanse of Sukhumvit Road
and the new Jomtien Second Road, and Pattaya’s Second Road looked like
it had been put through the spin cycle. Trash and sandbags littered
downtown for days after waters receded and officials who’d just a week
earlier approved an emergency budget of 1 million baht to fix earlier
flood damage on Soi 10 now had an even larger job on their hands.
Sunday afternoon on Soi
16 leading to Walking Street where just a little over a week ago,
workers shut down a main pipeline to repair leaking sewage.
No motorbike taxi here -
Women walk past inundated motorcycles as they try to make it home during
overnight flooding.
There is little hope that
this Mercedes will escape the flood unscathed.
Traffic backs up on
Sukhumvit Highway as the South Pattaya section becomes impassable.
Sawang Boriboon volunteers
launch rubber boats to rescue citizens and monks unable to escape the
flood on Sukhumvit Road.
Crews work to clear the
debris from the drainage canal near Bali Hai pier.
Early Sunday
morning, the entire Sukhumvit area is flooded and impassable.
The market area on Soi
Buakaow is completely under water.
