THE CITY administration has been accused of misrepresenting Bangkok’s chronic flooding problem by continually labelling floodwater as “water to be drained away”.

"It's definitely flooding and it reflects that the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration [BMA] has failed to draw up efficient flood-prevention systems," Assoc Prof Suwatthana Chittaladakorn said yesterday in his capacity as a member of the Engineering Institute of Thailand's water-resources engineering subcommittee.

The EIT held a press conference to discuss the capital's flooding problem and to present flood-prevention ideas in the wake of Bangkok's recent inundation.

Many parts of the capital were under water last week, when rainfall was recorded at slightly over 60 millimetres per hour. "With that rainfall, all rainwater should have gone away within 10 to 15 minutes. If you can't do that, you must admit that it's flooding," Suwatthana said.

The committee's secretary, Asst Prof Sitang Pilailar, said the BMA had spent billions of baht on flood prevention every year since 2014 but to date had failed to deliver any impressive results.

more BMA blind to city?s flood problem, say academics - The Nation