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| People carry their belongings through floodwaters in the inundated district of Rangsit, northern Bangkok, yesterday |
The mass of muddy water crept closer to the low-lying capital, home to 12mn people, triggering an exodus in flood-stricken areas just outside Bangkok where residents waded through waist-deep water clutching belongings.
“We cannot block the water forever,” said a sombre-looking Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
“The longer we block the water the higher it gets. We need areas that water can be drained through so the water can flow out to the sea.
“I have decided to ask Bangkok to open all gates, which could trigger an overflow, in order to drain water into the sea as soon as possible.”
Yingluck, the sister of fugitive former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, is facing the biggest test so far of her fledgling administration and in recent days has appeared to be showing signs of strain.
In Nonthaburi Province, only a few kilometres north of Bangkok, people were seen wading through water with bags, boxes and suitcases as they abandoned their waterlogged homes.
“It was very scary when the water came,” said Ruchuda Balisee, 40. “I’m worried about my dog, my son and my washing machine, which I just bought.”
The prospect of serious flooding in the capital triggered a new rush to stock up on food and bottled water, while motorists parked hundreds of cars on bridges or elevated roads, prompting a police warning to move them.
Bangkok has so far escaped major flooding after the authorities reinforced floodwalls and diverted water to areas outside the capital to protect the country’s political and economic heartland.
But a massive volume of run-off water is expected to reach the city by the weekend. It is hoped the water will run through Bangkok’s many canals and out into the sea, but if there is too much water the waterways will overflow.
“Flood waters are coming from every direction and we cannot control them because it’s a huge amount of water. We will try to warn people,” said Yingluck, a political novice before taking office barely two months ago.
“This problem is very overwhelming. It’s a national crisis so I hope to get co-operation from everybody.”
Three months of heavy monsoon rains in Thailand have killed 320 people, damaged the homes and livelihoods of millions of people, mostly in the north and centre, and forced tens of thousands to seek refuge in shelters.
The authorities have warned that seven districts - with a total official population of almost 1mn people - are at particular risk in northern and eastern Bangkok.
Residents in those areas have been advised to unplug electrical appliances, move belongings to higher ground and study the city’s evacuation plan.
Tens of thousands of soldiers and police have been mobilised to prevent people destroying flood defences.
The authorities have failed to protect a number of major industrial parks from the gushing brown water, which has inundated hundreds of factories outside Bangkok, disrupting production of cars, electronics and other goods.
The government says more than half a million people have been left without work.
Japanese carmakers’ production hit
Thai flooding has slashed Japanese automakers’ output by about 6,000 units a day and forced Sony Corporation to delay the launches of some cameras and lens kits, the electronics company and a car industry body said yesterday. Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association chairman Toshiyuki Shiga, who is also chief operating officer for Nissan Motor Co, said he could not say when production would be restored at Japanese plants in Thailand. The floods are expected to cause Thailand’s auto sector, the biggest in southeast Asia, to miss its output target of 1.8mn units this year, an executive at Honda Motor Co said. Separately, Sony, the world’s second-largest maker of digital cameras, said the global launch of its NEX-7 mirrorless interchangeable lens camera would be delayed indefinitely from the previous date of November 11.