amna: Coastal cities in
southeast Asia including
Bangkok, Jakarta and Manila face
a mutually risky future --
they're sinking as sea levels
around them are rising.
Fred de Sam Lazaro has our
report from Thailand.
Fred: Just 30 miles from
Thailand's capital, Bangkok sits
a temple on a small spit of
land.
The only way in is to walk or
hitch a ride with a motorcyclist
along a narrow, concrete
footbridge.
Over my shoulder here are about
2.5 square miles of what is
today the gulf of Thailand.
As recently as the mid-1990's,
this was the village of samut
chin.
Community leader suwan buaplai
points to the lines of what were
once power poles disappearing
into the distance, marking a
road where they once carried
power lines to houses, farms,
and markets in a thriving
fishing village.
>> The soil here erodes by 1.5
to 2 inches every year.
People have had to move houses
six or seven times because the
water has kept coming in.
Fred: The 50-year-old has been
fishing since he was 10.
>> There's been a decline in
mangrove forests, which has led
to quite a few species of fish
and shellfish disappearing
almost entirely.
Fred: Slowly, he says, the
buffer zone that shielded the
capital from the worst is
eroding away.
>> Bangkok has a natural
reservoir for water, and if the
water comes in it's very hard
for it to get out.
If there's flooding and places
like samut chin are no longer
around, the water could
potentially stay in Bangkok for
months.
Fred: Thailand's capital was
moved here 240 years ago, on the
Chao phraya river, lifeblood to
acres of rice paddies, at the
time the lifeblood of the
economy.
Today, this dense, concrete
megacity of some 10 million
residents is sinking at a rate
of up to two thirds of an inch
every year.
During high tides after some
flooding events, the river has
risen nearly 10 feet above sea
level.
>> Am I worried?
Yes.
Fred: I met varawut silpa-archa,
until recently, Thailand's
minister for natural resources
and environment, in his high
rise office.
>> 40 or 50 years from now we
might be sitting at the sea
level here on the 20th floor.
Fred: Many who live at street
level already know what that's
like.
>> It's impossible to live here
if you don't have a two-story
house.
Fred: Surapol kearnakpu, 65, is
a retired soldier and lives on a
canal in east Bangkok.
>> What we can carry upstairs,
we carry, but sometimes we just
have to let it flood.
So during the big floods of
2011, we couldn't move
appliances like the
refrigerators and television, so
we just let it flood.
Fred: The 2011 floods, the worst
in half a century, inundating
the city for almost three
months.
More than 800 people died, and
cost the Thai economy $40
billion U.S. In factory
shutdowns.
Thailand is a major
manufacturing hub serving global
supply chains.
The government has built some
new dikes and flood Gates to
hold the water at bay in a
future flood, but even the
former minister is skeptical.
>> I don't think it's adequate
enough.
We need to move much quicker.
Fred: Despite the high stakes,
he says, the sense of urgency
has waned as memories fade of
the 2011 floods.
>> Some of the infrastructure
has been developed since 2011.
But unfortunately, I think not
many people are really concerned
or realize how the magnitude of
the problem is.
Fred: One with multiple causes.
Rising sea levels are just one
factor causing the Thai capital
to sink.
Millions of new residents and
thousands of new high rises have
drained groundwater levels.
And many canals that drained
into the sea have been paved
over.
>> We grew rapidly without even
thinking about many capacities
and many like, sustainable urban
planning.
So, we are very addictive to
growth.
Like, we still want to grow
more.
Fred: Landscape architect
kotchakorn voraakhom runs a
social enterprise working to
increase urban resilience in her
hometown.
She says in recent decades, the
city has lost nearly half of its
network of 3000 canals that
drain through the Chao praya
river and into the sea.
>> Water is life to our culture.
But now when you develop the
city without concerning the
benefits of the natural
infrastructure, you shift to
road, you have to drive more,
you have to build more.
Fred: She's working to build a
more climate friendly city.
Her hallmark design is centenary
park, opened six years ago, a
vast green space in the middle
of the city.
Graded to harness gravity, the
park collects and holds water in
an underground reservoir,
reducing the flood risk.
In dry periods, up to a million
gallons is available for
watering.
Another kotchakorn project is
Chong nonsi canal park, above a
major canal, now reconnected to
fresh water to nourish greenery
on parkland.
Like many waterways, this one
had been disconnected from the
canal network, leaving it
stagnant and polluted.
>> This main canal is in the
heart of the city.
And is the true main canal that
connects to Chao phraya.
Fred: So people moved in here
migrating from rural areas to
get jobs?
>> Yes.
Fred: She took us to this canal
community that was among the
hardest hit in the 2011 flood.
>> We need these people to serve
the cities, but it's so
expensive to commute, so, they
live in informal settlements.
Fred: Kotchakorn's group is
working with community leaders
to help rehouse families being
displaced as authorities plan to
widen canals to move floodwaters
through faster.
She'd like to see more green
space ideas, not more concrete,
to mitigate the impact of
Bangkok's concrete binge.
>> It's such a lovely city that
we still want to be part of it.
Even with the flood.
We used to live with the flood.
We are amphibious.
We can live in a wet season and
dry season.
It's not about destroying it,
but work with the concrete.
Fred: Are you optimistic that
something will happen in time?
Or do you think you're going to
lose a lot of this city?
>> I know something will happen.
It's not a matter of if, it's a
matter of when, and it's not a
choice, shall we do it or shall
we not.
Fred: Meantime, not far from the
bustling metropolis, in the
once-upon-a-time village of
samut chin, a large statue of
lord buddha stands on a platform
of concrete, facing the sea,
hands outstretched as if holding
back the tide.
For the "Pbs newshour," I'm Fred
de Sam Lazaro, near Bangkok,
Thailand.
Amna: Fred's reporting is a
partnership with the under-told
stories project at the
university of St. Thomas in
Minnesota.
♪♪