Bangkok Governor returns to city, keeps his job (Updated)
Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra returned early from the Netherlands yesterday and immediately made a vigorous defence of his city's flood drainage efforts.
Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra returned early from the Netherlands yesterday and immediately made a vigorous defence of his city's flood drainage efforts.
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Thursday update
Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra inspects city flood prevention preparations immediately after his return from the Netherlands. PORNPROM SATRABHAYA
Governor lashes out at flood critics
SUPOJ WANCHAROEN
Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra was adamant Wednesday that city officials did their best in handling the floods across the city after non-stop downpours early on Monday morning.
"We're confident that we were on the right track," said MR Sukhumbhand at a press conference at the Department of Drainage and Sewerage. He was forced to cut short his visit to the Netherlands, originally scheduled to end tomorrow.
He also dismissed social media condemnation of him, saying they were only personal attacks.
MR Sukhumbhand came under fire for the same reason in late March as millions of city commuters suffered severe traffic gridlock after sudden heavy rains.
He argued that the amount of rain on Monday was unusually high. The average amount of rain in Bangkok is only 1,000 millilitres a year, but rainfall reached 141ml on Monday morning, he said.
The governor said it took officials three hours to drain the 65ml of water from the roads on March 24 and only four hours for the 141ml of rain on Monday.
His team has reduced the number of flood-prone areas in Bangkok from 37 to 22 and is still working on the rest, he said.
Wednesday's story
Security guards and city workers help push a car off Asok Road where it broke down in the heavy morning floods Monday. NARAPON HINSHIRANAN
Sukhumbhand scurries back to Bangkok
Patsara Jikkham, Supoj Wancharoen and online reporters
Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra has skipped the rest of his visit to the Netherlands to return to the capital on Wednesday after criticism piled on the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) over failure to prevent recent flooding.
A source at City Hall said on Tuesday that MR Sukhumband would arrive back in Bangkok on a flight from Amsterdam today, his return prompted by concerns over the flooding in Bangkok.
The governor has been attending the 2nd Policing in Global Cities international meeting in Rotterdam, scheduled to run from Saturday to this coming Friday, to hear discussions on measures to prevent flooding and cope with climate change.
MR Sukhumbhand has been targeted by Bangkokians since Monday morning, when they awoke to find much of the city awash. They struggled to get to work and to school after a five-hour downpour in the early hours had turned many areas of the capital into a big lake.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, however, has refused to use his special powers to take action against the Bangkok governor over the failure of the city's flood defences.
For now at least, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is refusing (left) to use his special powers to remove Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra THANARAK KHUNTON
The premier suggested Bangkok residents make their own decision at the next governor election.
The Stop Global Warming Association had called on the prime minister to invoke Section 44 of the interim constitution and sack the governor, alleging he has proved himself to be incompetent in handling the capital's flood management.
City Hall, on the other hand, blamed mountains of garbage being dumped at a rate of 1,000 tonnes a day and which were blocking waterways as being the main cause of the floods.
The environmental group's demand angered his support team, and MR Sukhumbhand's spokesman and adviser, Wasant Meepong, came out to defend him on his Facebook page.
MR Sukhumbhand ''never dodged a problem, not even once. But he lets his work, not his words, speak for itself,'' he wrote on Tuesday.
Mr Wasant challenged the environmental association and its leader Srisuwan Janya to show just what they have actually done, besides putting themselves in the public limelight.
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