Act now to stop Bangkok sinking, urge scientists

Subsidence and poor urban planning have resulted in the low-lying city gradually sinking between 2cm and 5cm a year, according to researchers in Thailand.
 
With the added problems of rising sea levels, which the UN International Panel on Climate Change estimates at between 18cm and 59cm by 2050, and coastal erosion along the Gulf of Thailand, Bangkok could soon be contending with regular flood waters up to 2m high.
 
“For decades we have known that the city was sinking because of sediment compression, but recent research has shown that the crust of the earth itself is also depressing here, caused by tectonic events that are totally outside our control. It is a combination of factors,” said Anond Snidvongs, the Southeast Asia regional research director for START (global change System for Analysis, Research and Training, a multi-national NGO).
 
Early warnings

Experts first sounded warnings that Bangkok was sinking in the early 1980s. Much of the problem was caused by water for industry being extracted from underground aquifers faster than it could be replaced, causing the soil to compress.
 
Changes to the law on water use have helped reduce the rate of soil compression, but researchers warn that policy-makers are still not giving enough thought to the scale of future problems.

Another issue is that many of Bangkok’s canals, which once drew comparisons with those of Venice, have been concreted over and turned into roads, while houses and factories have been built on the natural floodplains surrounding the capital.


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