We are about to witness the beginning of an end. A massive volume of water from Chai Nat, Nakhon Sawan, Uthai Thani, Sing Buri, Angthong, Ayutthaya, Pathum Thani – accumulated over the past months and flowing to Rangsit in northern Bangkok – is creating tremendous pressure on the key barriers and water gates protecting the capital. The longer the barricades hold, the longer the suffering of the residents and businesses of northern Bangkok, Pathum Thani and Nonthaburi. They will also suffer from rising tides.

In densely populated Bangbua Thong, Nonthaburi, the situation is critical, with water rising to two metres. Thousands of people are stuck in their homes.

Industrial estates in Ayutthaya and Pathum Thani have been decimated by Thailand’s worst floods in 50 years. The damage is enormous to the Thai production hub. About 1,000 manufacturing plants in the industrial estates of central Thailand have been completely inundated, creating immediate unemployment for more than 600,000 workers. Car parts and components production, precision machinery and electronics have been hardest hit by the shutdown.

Farmland has been destroyed. Housing estates and villages are under water. More than a million Thais are homeless as their houses are submerged. They have difficulties in access to healthcare and sanctuary centres. Food and water have become scarce.

Central Thailand, the rice bowl of Thailand, is devastated. On the western side of the capital, Nakhon Pathom and Samut Sakhon have also received flood warnings. Bangkok, now surrounded by water on all sides, can no longer be saved at all cost. Already, many parts of outer Bangkok have been sparsely flooded. It is a matter of time before the water finds its way into the capital.

The government is under pressure to let a tiny portion of the water flow into Bangkok in order to relieve the burden outside the capital. Somehow in this democratic society, the share of suffering from the floods is not equally distributed.

Somkiat Prajamwong, an official at the Irrigation Department, has recommended that the government cave in to the water pressure by letting the water pass through Bangkok and into the sea. That would be the quickest way to release it from the north. The situation will be manageable, Somkiat added, if some 23 million cubic metres of water a day is allowed to make its way through Bangkok. Don Muang would have to be sacrificed as another line of defence. The authorities then could concentrate on pumping water out of Don Muang and to slow down the water flow into Bangkok.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has not had enough sleep. At 4am yesterday, she rushed to inspect Bangkok’s water works system, flooded by water from Nava Nakorn Industrial Estate, and Thammasat University Rangsit campus. The system, which runs from Pathum Thani to Samsen waterworks canal in Dusit district of Bangkok, is under threat from the floods, which carry toxic materials from factories and households. The authorities have come out to reassure people that tap water still meets health standards and can be consumed.

Yingluck admitted yesterday that Bangkok could not be saved, as water would have to be allowed to flow into the capital, through its canals, to reduce pressure on the north. The water from canals would overflow to flood parts of Bangkok.

On Wednesday, Yingluck appealed to the media to give her a break. The crisis was beyond anybody’s anticipation, she said. Reporters, she added, could not keep asking her whether Bangkok could be saved. The honeymoon period for Yingluck, Thailand’s first female prime minister, has been brief and tragic.

Meanwhile, the Flood Relief Operation Command (Froc), chaired by Police General Pracha Phromnok, has come under acute criticism over its erratic performance and failure to keep up with the crisis. Pracha and his team have consistently fallen behind the curve in flood prevention, warnings, rescue operations and remedies. The squabbling between Froc and Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhan Paribatra has added salt to the wounds as Thais suffer the most severe disaster in modern history. The crisis management is nothing but a mess.

Bangkokians are in panic mode. They are stocking up on food and drinks and moving valuables and property to higher ground. After witnessing the floods in the north over the past three months with a sense of complacency, Bangkokians now realise that it is their turn to face the music. For the massive volume of water, in spite of efforts to divert it to the eastern and western sides of Bangkok, has nowhere else to go but downward to the capital’s heartland.

CLICK THIS
for the interactive flood map.

Good to have this:
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* NOTE (written on Nov-13-2012)
The above facebook wall does not seem to exist anymore.
Below is a screenshot :

It says
Rumor: This is Pathum-Rangsit Bridge (which was to the north of Bangkok).
The truth: This pic was taken in 2009 in the Philippines after a typhoon.