North of Bangkok, the stilts are no longer enough to keep houses dry, in villages that the Thai authorities are deliberately flooding to divert water from the capital.
At Kamonchanok Sathaphonamonwut, more than three meters above the ground, the family has to sleep on platforms and can no longer use the toilet. His village has been flooded for the sixth year in a row. Some residents ended up moving out. Others upgraded their homes. “Our area can no longer cope with so much water,” Kamonchanok Sathaphonamonwut, 34, told AFP.
Villages sacrificed to protect Bangkok
After devastating floods in 2011, the government expanded dikes, floodgates and other infrastructure to divert water from Bangkok, the central city of Ayutthaya and industrial areas.
The country faces floods every year during the monsoons, and climate change linked to human activities is increasing the intensity and frequency of heavy rains and floods, scientists say.
The measures effectively made it possible to protect these cities, to the detriment of other sectors. About 20 kilometers from the UNESCO-listed ruins of Ayutthaya, the water rises above the heads of residents in places and can take months to come down. Previously, it remained at knee level.
The authorities are “neglecting our residential neighborhoods” by seeking to do everything to protect Bangkok and the country’s commercial hubs, denounces Kamonchanok Sathaphonamonwut. The 30-year-old sometimes has to go to work by boat and stores her things high up. “All we can do is adapt to the consequences,” she says.
“Cruel”
In addition to climate change and the geography of the plain, recently constructed embankments have altered the flow of the Chao Phraya River and are worsening flooding downstream, acknowledges Thai Irrigation Department spokesperson Thanet Somboon.
“Even when the water from the Chao Phraya dam is released at the same flow rate as before, the consequences are greater,” he explains to AFP. Once the irrigation canals are filled with diverted water, the authorities have “no choice but to release the rest downstream,” he explains.
For Sasin Chalermlarp, environmental activist, the government has done “an excellent job” in managing the floods. According to him, the floods which previously hit a large part of Ayutthaya are now concentrated in “5 to 10%” of the province. But he recognizes that these measures are “cruel” for the most heavily affected inhabitants.
In the plains used for flood retention, AFP journalists observed partly submerged villages in October. In places, only the roofs of the houses still emerge.
Adapting to floods at a high cost
To try to escape the floods, some residents raise their houses at a high price. The work could cost between 100,000 and one million baht (2,480 to 24,480 €), residents estimate. Some have spent all their savings to raise their homes several times, to no avail.
Kamonchanok Sathaphonamonwut’s family upgraded their house twice in the 1990s. But the home has flooded every year since 2020. Sawong Raksri, 87, spent more than a million baht on the work. “In recent years, there have been floods like this every year. What’s the point of complaining?”
Sasin Chalermlarp, environmental activist, recognizes that the location of the land on the plain makes it a natural route for the flow of water. “But the villagers have no choice. We force them to make sacrifices,” he denounces.
Living in a protected area of Ayutthaya, he proposed an “anti-flood tax”. Paid by people benefiting from protection measures, it would be used to help families improve their homes and repair damage.
For its part, the government is promoting the construction of a canal that could evacuate 1,200 cubic meters of water per second, or half of an Olympic swimming pool. Estimated at $780 million, it must be completed in 2030.
Until then, Kamonchanok Sathaphonamonwut reports that his community is not even demanding an end to intentional flooding, but a capping of water levels and financial support for those whose homes are below flood level. “All we ask is to be able to live properly in our own homes,” she explains.
