Sawatdee, krup! How the heck
are you? Not got that sinking feeling today, have you? Good. Sink your teeth
into a virtual treat and wash it down with some delightfully perky coffee, why
don’t’cha? Speaking of sinking...
Bangkok, Thailand's capital,
is both glitzy and gritty, a city of glass towers and cement hovels teeming
with nearly 10 million people. (Taxi drivers have told me it is closer to
12-15 million!)
All that steel and concrete
and humanity sits on what was once marshland. The ground beneath is spongy and
moist. Imagine a brick resting on top of a birthday cake. That's Bangkok — and
it's sinking into the Earth at an alarming rate.
Thailand's disaster
specialists have been warning of this coming calamity for years. One expert has
said he's "worried about Bangkok resembling Atlantis." Another
previously told GlobalPost that the city will be under five feet of water by
2030.
Previous estimates showed that
Bangkok is sinking more than three inches per year. But newer data suggests the
rate is closer to four inches per year.
The predictions for 2100 are
even more dire. By then, Bangkok will be fully submerged and unliveable.
Like global warming, which
will accelerate the city's submersion by raising the sea level, Bangkok's
sinking woes are repeatedly shrugged off. Thailand's military and civilian
rulers alike tend to obsess over immediate concerns (namely power, prestige,
and money) and keep punting the problem along.
But the monsoon season,
currently underway, tends to bring this crisis to mind.
A nasty storm can suddenly
turn Bangkok's streets into gushing streams. Sewers overflow, taxis churn
through fetid water and, occasionally, kids can scoop up displaced fish
wriggling above the asphalt. Four years ago, during a particularly severe
flood, GlobalPost found families in neck-deep waters on their second-story
balconies.
Anond Snidvongs, director of
the Southeast Asia Regional Research Center, predicts the city's outskirts will
be the first to go. Parts of the shoreline beyond Bangkok are already lined
with pumps that grunt noisily and purge invading seawater. They don't always
work. During heavy rains, saltwater flows in the streets.
Bangkok is swallowed up a
little more each day. Experts tend to offer two solutions.
The first is to erect a
massive seawall that could cost nearly $3 billion — about half of Thailand's
current GDP.
The second option? Giving up
entirely and moving the capital to higher ground.
This article, by Patrick Winn, originally appeared at GlobalPost.
Wow! I know that Bangkok (along with most of Southeast
Asia is sinking. Besides its famous canals, this is another similarity to
Venice.) but 3-4 inches a year? Holy Noodles! Let’s check the math
here...assume four inches a year or 1 foot every three years. In 15 years
(2030), Bangkok will be not five but six feet under...and you know what that means, eh?
Yup...all new buildings will have to be built on stilts just like houses there
used to be and some still are.
Another possible solution, though perhaps a little farefetched...Kansai
Airport in Osaka, Japan was built a mile out into the ocean and the buildings
are all on hydraulic lifts. If one sinks a little, it is jacked up so it is
level. We need an engineer here. Bryan, in Pattaya, are you reading this? How
much would it cost to jack up the entire city of Bangkok? Just give me a rough
estimate, okay?
See ya, eh!
Bob
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