Bangkok Floods Amid Criticism of Government- Video

by NowPublic Staff | October 21, 2011 at 09:12 am

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Flood Waters Reach Bangkok

After days of trying to divert the floods in Thailand from reaching the capital, Bangkok has opened its floodgates, and runoff is streaming through seven districts on the way to the Gulf of Thailand.

Bangkok's outer suburbs are swamped with floodwater, with residents wading through knee-deep water in some neighborhoods.

"I ask all Bangkok residents to move your belongings to higher ground as a precaution, but they should not panic. It's preparation," Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said.

A day earlier, Ms Yingluck warned the government "cannot block the water forever".

Shinawatra's handling of the flooding has been fiercely criticized, and purposely flooding Bangkok will not alleviate that criticism. A state of emergency has not been declared, and Bangkok residents are stockpiling food and drinking water, as well as moving their cars to higher ground, such as bridges and overpasses.

Residents are building their own dams and breakwaters, or trying to sabotage those upstream in an attempt to avoid flooding their own streets.

The flooding is a result of an extremely wet season, between typhoons and monsoons, which have filled reservoirs to their tipping points.