Frustrated
residents in the Thai capital stage protests; some intend to bring the matter
to court to stop the month-long flooding in their areas
Frustrated by the month-long inundation of
their homes in Pathum Thani in northern Bangkok, about 100 residents on
Wednesday blocked an inbound tollway section near Zeer Mall, causing heavy
traffic congestion and later leading to confrontation with angry motorists
which resulted in one person getting injured.
The protesters, mostly those living along Khu
Khot-Lam Luk Ka Canal, who began the blockade at noon, refused to disperse
after negotiations with motorists, and then with police. Another group of
residents blocked Kaew Nimit Bridge in Thanya Buri district and threatened to breach
a section of a big-bag barrier.
On the tollway, both sides had an angry
exchange of words after they refused to open a lane at the request of
motorists. The melee began when a car tried to drive through the crowd of
protesters, and one of the protesters climbed onto it and stomped on the
windshield, before police separated both sides. One protester sustained
injuries to his right wrist.
The protesters later dispersed after talking
to deputy police chief Phongsaphat Phongcharoen, who promised a 30cm decrease
in the flood-water level in their residential areas by the month's end. They
vowed to return if the promise proved false.
There was no confrontration at Kaew Nimit
Bridge, and the protesters there dispersed after insisting on their demand for
demolition of a big-bag barrier along a Rangsit Canal section.
A protester, Manit Jankhao, said he was happy
with the promise. He said he was upset at having to put up with foul-smelling,
polluted flood waters, almost waist high, for more than a month.
Another protest was held at a section of a
big-bag barrier near an Air Force unit. The protesters, numbering about 300,
later breached a section despite some 500 police guarding of it, letting out a
deluge of flood water.
Responding to the breach, deputy City Clerk
Jumphol Samphaophol said it would make flood drainage in that area and key
locations south of it more difficult, including the Kasetsart, Sena Niwet
intersections, while the stagnant waters would stay on for another four or five
days.
Meanwhile, a group of Nonthaburi residents
lodged a complaint with the Central Administrative Court demanding an emergency
inquiry into the government Flood Relief Operations Centre move to salvage
Route 340, along with an injunction to stop operations at both Route 340 and
the Western Outer Ring Road.
The three complainants said they were affected
by the ongoing salvage of both major roads. They also demanded that nearby
watergates be opened and reinforcement of a sandbag wall along a Maha Sawas
Canal section in Nonthaburi province be stopped.
A group of Pathum Thani residents agreed to
lodge a complaint with the court demanding action to stop the month-long
inundation in their areas, which are located not far from the heavily flooded
Garden Home estate where they called the meeting.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on
Wednesday ordered Flood Relief Operations Centre (FROC) to hold a meeting with
the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) to discuss a readjustment in the
joint FROC-BMA flood-drainage strategy, after certain Bangkok areas had dried,
while efforts to drain water in Pathum Thani and Nonthaburi would be
heightened.
Asked to comment on Yingluck's statement that
flood prevention must be carried out integrally, not focusing on the capital
alone, Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra said: "Do you want to see
the prime minister's written order given to me, which says I take care of
operations only in Bangkok.
"And if the order is altered to authorise
me to oversees the operations across the country, that's fine. I am happy to
oblige."
Nonthaburi governor Wichian Phutthiwinyoo
questioned the BMA's "sincerity" in flood prevention, involving his
province. He said the BMA had agreed to open the floodgate at Maha Sawas Canal
to the one-metre level, but later decreased it to 75cm, in the first 48 hours.
He said Nonthaburi residents now understood
him more that it was the BMA that was fully authorised to operate many
watergates, including the one at Maha Sawas canal.
Wichian said he would not react to the BMA
decision but had now obtained 200 water pumps and would use them to drain flood
water westward to Tha Chin River, after draining it southward [through Maha
Sawas Canal and partly through Bangkok seemed fruitless.
Ekkamporn Rujiput and Kesinee Taengkieo
The Nation (Thailand)
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