Sinking Bangkok fights to stay above water with anti-flood park
Vast underground reservoirs beneath the sprawling Thai capital’s Centenary Park can store more than 4 million litres of water in periods of heavy rainfall, and release when needed
Bangkok is sinking – fast. As urban development continues unabated, the city of more than 10 million people is getting lower by 2 centimetres a year, according to Greenpeace estimates. Meanwhile, the surface of the Gulf of Thailand is rising by 4 millimetres a year – above the global average.
With the Thai capital currently about 1.5 metres above sea level, the spectres of the 2011 floods that inundated the city, and those of 2017 that killed 1,200 people in India, Nepal and Bangladesh, loom large. Recent rainwater floods, plus a United Nations preparatory meeting on climate change hosted in Bangkok, pushed concerns to the surface once more.
“When I was young, I liked floods,” says architect Kotchakorn Voraakhom, who was born in the city. “I pushed my little boat out and the road became a canal. It was such fun. But after 2011, everyone was like, ‘Oh. What used to be childhood fun has become a disaster.’ And it’s getting worse.”
In 2011, Thailand suffered its worst flooding in 50 years. Climate scientist Seri Suptharathit predicts the city will be mostly underwater by the end of the century.
Voraakhom’s ingenious answer was the 45,000 sq m Centenary Park, at Chulalongkorn University, in the centre of the city. Hidden beneath the trees and grass lies its most interesting feature: vast underground water containers that, along with a large pond, can hold more than 4 million litres of water.