Pattaya mayor goes back to drawing board to battle flooding

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Mayor Sonthaya Kunplome, meeting with his lieutenants and all departments responsible for water management, said city hall has to go back to the drawing board, re-examining everything talked about and done before. City hall, he added, must coordinate with other sub-districts and the Department of Town and Country Planning to devise a strategy. It also must work with other authorities to control the opening of floodgates to assure that water from reservoirs and canals drains at the right time.
Mayor Sonthaya Kunplome, meeting with his lieutenants and all departments responsible for water management, said city hall has to go back to the drawing board, re-examining everything talked about and done before. City hall, he added, must coordinate with other sub-districts and the Department of Town and Country Planning to devise a strategy. It also must work with other authorities to control the opening of floodgates to assure that water from reservoirs and canals drains at the right time.

Pattaya’s new mayor has taken up the old challenge of trying to solve Pattaya’s chronic flooding problem.

Sonthaya Kunplome, meeting with his lieutenants and all departments responsible for water management Oct. 3, said city hall has to go back to the drawing board, re-examining everything talked about and done before.

Pattaya’s new mayor has taken up the old challenge of trying to solve Pattaya’s chronic flooding problem.
Pattaya’s new mayor has taken up the old challenge of trying to solve Pattaya’s chronic flooding problem.

He said a new geographic survey needs to be done to map out the natural flow of storm runoff and how it pours into the city from higher elevations in Banglamung District.

City hall, he added, must coordinate with other sub-districts and the Department of Town and Country Planning to devise a strategy. It also must work with other authorities to control the opening of floodgates to assure that water from reservoirs and canals drains at the right time.

Sonthaya noted that an earlier proposal to have the government give the city 665 million baht under the Eastern Economic Corridor banner to build a new water-treatment plant was rejected.

He said meetings need to be set with Banglamung District on managing water flow and storm runoff, that a survey of all the city’s pumps and equipment is needed, and a list of all the obstacles to natural drainage compiled.