A 3.5 meters tall,
23.5-kilometer-long earthen dam has been constructed around the
airport’s perimeter to prevent flooding.
Phasakorn Channgam
Despite perceptions abroad to the contrary,
Thailand’s main international airport is open for business and both the
routes to Pattaya and the city itself are unaffected by the country’s
flooding crisis.
During a Nov. 10 media tour of Suvarnabhumi
International Airport, Airports of Thailand officials said that even
though the country’s international gateway is not threatened by water,
they are taking the crisis seriously, undertaking several initiatives to
prevent any impact to tourists arriving for holidays.
Unlike Bangkok’s old
airport at Don Muang, Suvarnabhumi International Airport, the kingdom’s
international gateway, is not threatened by water.
Airport General Manager Somchai Sawasdeepon said
anyone arriving at Suvarnabhumi wouldn’t even know Bangkok has been hit
by flooding. Nearly 800 airlines are using the facility daily, handling
more than 100,000 passengers.
He said he lamented that photos of Bangkok’s old
airport at Don Muang being inundated confused overseas tourists. That
facility, on the opposite end of Bangkok, is little used and only for
domestic flights. International tourists arrive through unaffected
Suvarnabhumi.
While floodwater is rapidly flowing out of Bangkok
and into the Gulf of Thailand, Suvarnabhumi officials are still taking
the threat seriously. A 3.5 meters tall, 23.5-kilometer-long earthen dam
was constructed around the airport’s perimeter to prevent flooding.
In addition, officials dug a canal outside the
perimeter to serve as a drainage canal to vents to three different
reservoirs. Finally, the airport installed high-capacity pumps on either
side of airport property.
None of these measures will likely ever be needed. At
its closest, water was seven kilometers from Suvarnabhumi and is now
receding.
Once out of the airport, the route to Pattaya is also
clear. The Bangkok-Chonburi Expressway takes tourists into the heart of
un-flooded Pattaya in less than 90 minutes.