Surveillance footage from Thaichote, the first Thai observation satellite, has revealed that Bangkok is sinking at a rate even faster than experts had previously predicted.
Whereas past governments have invested billions of baht in embankment projects aimed at keeping Bangkok from tumbling into the sea, Thaichote’s data, revealed earlier this week, shows that those embankments have for the most part failed.
This is severely bad news, seeing as a lower-lying Bangkok means that 2011’s disastrous floods will almost certainly be repeated some time in the next decade.
In an interview with MCOT, Anon Sanitwong Na Ayuttaya, Director of the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA), outlined the bleak scenario:
“If changes are made within the next five years,” he said, “major floods can be prevented. There are several options, several technologies available. For instance, 1) to not do anything at all, 2) to relocate cities to other areas, 3) to create satellite cities, 4) to build ducts around the cities like in the Netherlands. And 5) to reclaim land and practically cover up the Gulf of Thailand area.”
Anon insisted that local citizens be included in the discussions of which routes to take, seeing as their input would be needed in order to come up with politically viable options.
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