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Bangkok - Floodwater continues to pour into the Thai capital flooding outlying areas of the city, forcing many of its two million residents to evacuate. This has provoked intense anger from those living in the deluged districts. Residents in some suburbs feel their districts have been sacrificed to save the city centre.

The government says efforts to protect the centre from the rising floodwaters have been largely successful. The threat of disease now looms for those having to wade through these floodwaters. The water in the outlying areas now has sewage, rubbish and dead animals in it.

Charities working in the country warn about diarrhoea, dengue fever and malaria in the coming weeks. Immediate threats include mosquitoes that are breeding rapidly, and people are afraid of snakes and crocodiles in the waist high waters. Accumulated flood water caused by weeks of monsoon rain is still draining from the central provinces through channels in and around Bangkok to the sea. Officials are warning it will be many weeks before the situation stabilises.

Category: Thailand / Bangkok / Flooding

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Thailand’s capital Bangkok continues to see ongoing fighting between the “Yellow shirts” (the government) and the “red shirts” (the opposition) (the United Front for Democracy (UDD)). The “civil war” intensified in the city’s shopping district after renegade Thai general Khattiya Sawasdipol was shot whilst giving an interview as he backed the protesters. He later died in hospital.

Troops later opened fire on the red shirt encampment using live bullets rather than rubber ones. Tear gas was also used to try to get the red camp to shift. They responded by setting alight rubber tyres that created black smoke to shield themselves. Thousands of tyres now line the area. The reds torched nearby buildings and used slingshots at troops. Fire crackers were also hurled. Trucks and other vehicles were burnt.

Since March, when the dispute started, more than 60 people have been killed, another 1,600 wounded. This is in the land of smiles where tourists still go! Tourists though have been advised to stay away from Thailand by their governments. Tourism has unsurprisingly sharply dropped.

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