Thai villages flooded to protect capital
Your browser does not support the audio element.
Inside stilt homes north of Bangkok, villagers in Ayutthaya province endure increasingly severe flooding, forced to live on makeshift platforms and abandon waterlogged toilets. Kamonchanok Sathaphonamonwut, a 34-year-old resident, wades through her now-soggy home, lamenting that authorities prioritize protecting Bangkok and other business centers while neglecting her community.
Thailand experiences yearly monsoon flooding, with climate change exacerbating heavy rain and flood severity. In response to devastating floods in 2011, the government bolstered river defenses, but residents say floods that once reached knee-high now inundate them head-high in some areas, taking months to recede. The Thai irrigation department attributes rising flood severity to climate change, low elevation, and modified river flow from newly constructed embankments.
With irrigation channels overflowing, authorities release excess water downstream, with no alternative route available. Many remaining residents have invested in raising their stilt houses higher to keep living spaces dry, while the government works on a $780-million flood diversion canal to alleviate the bottleneck where the Chao Phraya River narrows through Ayutthaya, targeting completion by 2030.
Written by urgent.news from New Straits Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
