BANGKOK,
Thailand (AP) — The government expressed confidence Sunday that Bangkok will
escape Thailand's worst flooding in decades, as the capital's elaborate
barriers held strong and floodwaters began receding from submerged plains to
the north.
Agriculture Minister Theera Wongsamut said the
largest mass of runoff water flowing southward had passed through Bangkok's
Chao Phraya river and into the Gulf of Thailand, and that the river's levels
would rise no higher. He stopped short of saying the threat to Bangkok had
passed completely.
The capital is being shielded by an elaborate
system of flood walls, canals, dikes and underground tunnels. But if any of the
defenses fail, floodwaters could begin seeping into the city of 9 million
people.
"People have faith these walls will
work," a saffron-robed monk named Pichitchai said as he peaked over stacks
of sandbags added in recent days to help protect a Buddhist temple along a
canal in northwestern Bangkok. The 36-year-old monk uses only one name.
The agriculture minister said floodwaters in
the central provinces of Singburi, Angthong and hard-hit Ayutthaya — all just
north of Bangkok — have begun to recede, signaling that the pressure on the
capital could ease. A spokesman for the government's flood relief center, Wim
Rungwattanajinda, said floodwaters have also decreased in Nakhon Sawan province
in the same area.
"People in Bangkok should be at ease that
this water is being diverted without passing through" the capital, Wim
said.
Relentless monsoon rains that began in late
July have affected two-thirds of the country, drowning agricultural land,
swamping hundreds of factories and swallowing low-lying villages along the way.
Nearly 300 people have been killed so far,
while more than 200 major highways and roads have been shut along with the main
rail lines to the north. The government says property damage and losses could
reach $3 billion dollars. The most affected provinces are just north of
Bangkok, including Ayutthaya, a former capital which is home to ancient and
treasured stone temples. Water there and in other towns has risen in some
places six feet high (two meters high), forcing thousands of people to abandon
their homes.
Despite widespread fears that disaster could
touch Bangkok, the city has so far been mostly untouched. Heavy rains poured
down on the capital for much of the day Sunday, but life was otherwise normal
with shopping malls open and elevated trains crisscrossing the city.
Theera, the agriculture minister, told
reporters that the "level of water has already subsided" on the Chao
Phraya river. It "will not be higher than the barriers," he said.
Sean Boonpracong, another spokesman for
Bangkok's flood relief center, said several days of higher-than-normal tides —
which have slowed runoff through the Chao Phraya to the sea — have also eased.
Speaking late Saturday, Bangkok Gov.
Sukhumbhand Paribatra said he was worried about barriers on the northwest side
of the capital, saying they were not as strong as in other parts of Bangkok and
water could flood around them and into the city from the west. But on Sunday,
he said the situation was still under control.
Associated Press journalists who traveled to
that area Sunday found no serious flooding in the district bordering on
neighboring Nonthaburi and Nokhon Pathom provinces. Canals were not overflowing
and although some residents were still reinforcing sandbag walls, few were
worried.
Over the last few days, government officials
have voiced increasing confidence the capital would survive without major
damage. On Sunday, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra echoed those sentiments
again, saying "I believe Bangkok will be safe."
Yingluck spoke just after presiding over a
ceremony in which an armada of more than 1,000 small boats stationed in dozens
of spots on the Chao Phraya turned on their engines in an effort to help propel
water down the river. It wasn't immediately clear what impact the effort would
have.
THANYARAT DOKSONE and TODD PITMAN - Associated
Press
Associated Press writers Grant Peck and Sinfah
Tunsarawuth contributed to this report.
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