With unseasonal storms warning of a particularly wet rainy season, Pattaya’s mayor reiterated that he has both short- and long-term plans to solve flooding.
Reiterating the message he put out in October, Sonthaya Kunplome said Feb. 16 there are short-, medium- and long-term solutions.
One short-term project is already underway – a new drainage system until the railway-parallel road due for completion in 2023.
Other short-term solutions are replacing old drainage pipes smaller than a meter wide, digging new drainage canals and dredging large canals to carry runoff to the sea.
The mid-term plan calls for repair and installation of new pumps in six stations around the city. This has cut previous flood-drainage times from two hours to 30-45 minutes, he claimed.
The long-term plan is unfunded and only a “model scheme” at this point to solve flooding and drainage on a system-wide, city-wide level. The Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning would be tasked with surveying and designing a new drainage system.
Finally, Pattaya proposed that its current sewage-treatment infrastructure be expanded beyond the current two processing plants. The first step would be to fix the Soi Wat Boonkanjanaram plant so it could actually handle the 40,000 cu. meters a day of wastewater it was designed for. Currently, it can handle only half that.
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