Bangkok at breaking point as floods turn streets into stagnant lakes | Extreme weather conditions

BAngkok is used to absorbing the sudden afternoon downpours that flood the city during the rainy season. Even the streets of many high-rise central neighborhoods can briefly turn into rivers, with rats and cockroaches emerging from the sewers and taking temporary refuge in trees and buildings as the underworld is expelled.

But every city has a breaking point, and this year the rain fell so fast and hard that entire neighborhoods of the Thai capital turned, not into rivers, but into stagnant lakes. In some parts of the city, around 300mm of rain – the equivalent of six months’ average rainfall in London – fell in around two days.

Around 40 people died in flood-related incidents, according to the government. A number of deaths are due to drowning and several to accidental electrocution. Thousands of people remained in more than 230 shelters across the city, authorities said.

Suleemas Kurangkul, a 73-year-old resident of a building whose ground floor stairs are still underwater, said last weekend’s rain was not the usual evening storm but was constant, “like all day, all night.”

“The water kept rising,” said Suleemas, whose apartment sits above the waterline on the second floor. By the time she and her neighbors received a warning on their cellphones, it was too late and the water at street level was waist-deep.

The Khlong Chan apartment, dating from the 1970s, northeast of Bangkok, where Suleemas lives, has become a symbol of the disaster. Photos were shared across Thailand of apartments emerging from the brownish water, with the roofs of parked cars barely protruding above the surface, although authorities managed to evacuate the bulk of them on Thursday.

Later in the week, during a brief respite from the rain, Suleemas said the water had receded somewhat. “People are so happy to see the sun,” she said. “Yet the smell is getting stronger and stronger. So much debris and trash is floating everywhere.”

Built on a vast floodplain of the Chao Phraya River, Bangkok, a megacity of millions, relies on a network of muddy canals to drain water, as well as pumps and dikes. But concrete construction has destroyed a large part of the canal network and the city is unable to cope.

The government has declared flood condition in all 50 districts of the city. Some neighborhoods have transformed into dystopian scenes, with people using inflatable paddling pools or, in one case, a floating refrigerator, as boats to reach their homes. A man has been arrested for driving a jetski on a main road.

“It’s a lesson,” said Chaleerat Chamrasporn, 55, a resident. “Kids love end-of-the-world content, so now they can see what the ‘end of the world’ really looks like, or rather, that it’s just the beginning. »

Flooding has also disrupted Bangkok’s main airport, Suvarnabhumi, with around half of Thai Airways staff unable to show up for work at one point this week, causing thousands of pieces of luggage to pile up and forcing flight cancellations. Many schools have closed, and with much of the capital under lockdown, even residents in less affected areas are stuck at home.

Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters that the Bangkok metropolitan area was still under threat from floodwaters coming from the north, and said a situation room had “been set up to monitor” the situation. Thailand’s weather agency has forecast more heavy rain for next week.

This is part of a pattern that seems to be taking hold in this part of the world. Southeast Asia has already seen worsening extreme flooding, scientists say, a trend expected to worsen as fossil fuel pollutants further burn the planet. Warm seas evaporate more water, and warm air can hold more moisture, allowing showers to come down with much more force.

“In central Thailand, I can see from my maps that we have already seen a slight but significant trend towards extreme rainfall,” said Nikolaos Skliris, an oceanologist at the University of Southampton who has studied heavy rains in the region. “In the long term, all the models show this will be amplified – more precipitation and more extreme precipitation. »

It is too early for scientists to attribute these particular rains to climate change without conducting a study. They were caused by a low pressure system that moved from an unusually warm South China Sea over Cambodia and Vietnam before getting stuck over Bangkok, which was quite cool, according to Copernicus Climate Pulse data.

The situation is complicated by the emergence of an unusually strong El Niño, a cyclical weather phenomenon that brings record temperatures and more severe extreme events around the world. Its presence generally leads to drier summer conditions in Southeast Asia, but recent research suggests it further exacerbates days of extreme precipitation.

Naim Laeni, a consultant and part-time university professor who co-authored a study on Bangkok’s resilience to flooding, said authorities had underestimated the force of the rains, which persisted for several days. The city’s drainage canals can handle around 60mm of rain per hour, reaching 80mm in improved sections, but localized bursts have exceeded this figure while leaving too little time between periods of stress.

“The government has not communicated the seriousness of the situation,” Laeni said. “Usually in Bangkok we get heavy rain for a few hours, not for days. »

Neighboring Myanmar suffered from the same weather system, with flash floods and blocked roads complicating relief efforts in the country.

Rescuers were removing bodies from a landslide that devastated the village of Ka Det Nge Htein in southern Myanmar over the weekend. This disaster has already left nine dead and eight other people missing under the mud in another village, local officials said.

The country’s civil war and a junta that restricts the media have made access to information difficult and hampered humanitarian organizations.

In Bangkok, pumping stations are operating at full capacity, but it may take several days before the waters drain completely.

At her apartment complex, Suleemas said she would stay where she was with her neighbors.

“It’s hard, yes, very hard,” she said. “But together we fight and we get through it. When we come together to help each other in this way, our spirit can keep us standing; we can get through this together.”

Agence France-Presse contributed to this report