Rubbish Blocking the Drains in Bangkok

In Bangkok this afternoon, there were isolated storms that completely flooded the roads. In Rangsit, in the northern suburbs of Bangkok, someone on Twitter said that in less than 20 minutes the water was over the sidewalk. In Bangkok Yai, in the western suburbs, they had 95mm in a short period. Bangkok’s drains just couldn’t handle this. Roads became rivers. The picture above was taken on Rama VIII Bridge which amazingly had water below and above. I have never seen it that bad on a bridge before.

One of the reasons that the drains cannot handle all of this rain is that some of them are blocked with rubbish. Over the last few days, I have seen a number of people tweeting pictures of drains blocked with all kids of rubbish. It was the kind of things people had obviously dropped into the gutter instead of a rubbish bin. The above picture is the result of one short section of a drainage canal being dredged. More work definitely needs to be done to clear the drains. Using prison labour, like in the picture below, is not the answer. Proper money has to be spent.  But, in the long run, the public has to be educated on how to properly dispose of their rubbish.

 

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