Bangkok won’t be under seawater in 20 years
Chula lecturers put record straight with latest forecasts
Following a report that Bangkok might be under seawater in 20 years’ time and suggestions that the capital should be moved to the Northeast, Chulalongkorn University lecturers yesterday countered with advice that the public should not panic over such claims.
They said it would take 100 years for the coast near Bangkok to erode inland by six to eight kilometres, and there was no reason for panic over the slim chance of a tsunami in the Gulf of Thailand.
Faculty of Science geology lecturer Thanawat Jarupongsakul said that claims of ice melting and causing sea levels to rise by six or seven metres, flooding Bangkok and the central provinces within 20 years, were not backed by scientific fact and research.
The claims have created panic among members of the public, with some people selling “at-risk” properties to buy new plots in the Northeast.
He said that predictions of a tsunami in the Andaman Sea on December 30 had also frightened villagers who were affected by the 2004 tsunami. Therefore, Chulalongkorn University experts had decided to give an accurate perspective of the situation.
