700,000 suffering under Bangkok floods

Police push a boat with evacuees at the Khlong Chan flats in Bang Kapi district, Bangkok, on Monday morning. (Police photo) Severe flooding in Bangkok was affecting about 329,000 families, about 700,000 people, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration said on Monday.

Deputy city governor Tavida Kamolvej said the hardest hit part of the capital was Lat Krabang district with 30,000-40,000 flood victims.

In Bang Kapi district there were about 20,000 affected people. There were another 30,000-40,000 victims in Khannayao district and about 10,000 in communities near canals in Laksi, Saphan Sung and Suan Luang districts.

About 1,500 bed-ridden people had been moved from their flooded homes to BMA hospitals.

The BMA is seeking donations of dried food and drinking water. “We need hundreds of thousands of bottles of drinking water, right now,” Ms Tavida said.

City Hall also needs mobile kitchens, vehicles with high road clearance and small flat boats to reach householders in deeply flooded areas, she said.

The BMA is receiving calls for help on the 1669 and 1555 hotline numbers.

Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said flood drainage continued and water levels should start to subside in canals.

Many streets remained deep under floodwater on Monday morning.

Deputy governor Wisanu Subsompon said drainage was being accelerated to its highest capacity to lower the levels of Saen Saep and Prawet Burirom canals, the major waterways of eastern Bangkok, so they could handle more runoff.

“It will not be so easy to drain off the water in communities from the overflowing canals. Drainage will take about a week in deeply flooded Lat Krabang,” Mr Wisanu said.