Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Bangkok is sinking 3-4 inches per year!



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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