The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration is cooperating with the Corrections Department to bring back prison inmates to clear sewers in the capital to reduce risks of flooding in the rainy season.
Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt on Tuesday met with director– general of the Corrections Department Ayut Sinthoppan to allow convicts to resume their clean-up works for the city hall after their work had been halted for years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sewer cleaning is set to start on July 1 and the BMA targets to clean 100 kilometers of the drainage system immediately in the flood-prone areas.
Prison inmates will get the same workers’ rights. They will be hired on a voluntary basis and will be provided with proper protective equipment, said the Bangkok governor.
Out of 6,500 sewer lines in the city, about 2,000 kilometers have been cleared this year and the BMA has the remaining budget of 15 million baht for sewer cleaning in the current fiscal year. (TNA)