After discovering that their newly installed pumps weren’t going to solve Beach Road’s chronic flooding problem, Pattaya officials were told they should install new, wider drainage pipes at three beachfront locations.
Thanawat Jarupongsakul of the Chulalongkorn University Department of Geology, which has been the consultant to the city on the Pattaya Beach refill project, told Deputy Mayor Verawat Khakhay and officials from the Marine and Engineering department that, instead of pumps at three places along Beach Road, the city needs bigger pipes.
Officials look over a plan for new, wider drainage pipes, for which, evidently, Pattaya coffers don’t have the funds.
Thanawat said a 1.25-kilometer pipe, two meters wide, was needed running from the sea at Soi 6/1, the current site of four ineffective pumps. A 200-meter-long pipe should be installed at the Dusit Curve to connect with the existing drainage network, and a 47-meter connecting pipe at Walking Street, the site of another pump, he said.
The pipe projects were called a permanent solution to Pattaya’s beachfront flooding problem, but will require a large, currently unavailable, budget to fund them. Thanawat estimated total cost at 190 million baht.
