Bangkok: Floods advance into city, threaten economy

As floodwaters encircled the Thai capital, authorities in Bangkok widened an evacuation order in the city's northern districts, and made plans to protect two industrial parks near the main international airport.

According to Mayor Sukhumvit, Bangkok has already ordered people in 11 districts of Bangkok to evacuate, and another 7 districts to partly evacuate, Taiwan News reported.

Water levels rose around more of the industrial zones in eastern Bangkok. Lad Krabang, one of those districts, includes a factory operated by Honda Motor Co. Honda abandoned its full-year profit forecast last week after another of their plants was flooded, Bloomberg News reported.

The economic implications of the floods are severe.

According to Bloomberg News:

The renewed threat to factories may worsen the impact of floods that have prompted the central bank to slash its 2011 economic growth forecast to 2.6 percent. The disaster is also hitting tourism, which the government estimates accounts for 7 percent of gross domestic product.

According to Taiwan News:

“Once Bangkok sinks, it won’t ever rise again. OECD already listed Bangkok as one of ten nations which are most possible to have the problem with seawater intrusion before 2070,”said David McCauley, the first Expert in climate changing for Asian Development Bank.