Bangkok faces flooded future, expert says

By Gillian Griffith-Jones

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's capital, Bangkok, will be under water in 20 years because of rising seas from global warming and subsidence, says a top Thai climate expert who warned of a tsunami years before the 2004 disaster.

"If nothing is done, Bangkok will be at least 50 centimeters to one meter under water," Smith Dharmasaroja, head of Thailand's National Disaster Warning Centre, said in an interview.

Bangkok, a sprawling city of more than 10 million people and criss-crossed by more than 1,000 canals, is between 1 and 1.5 meters (3 to 5 feet) above sea level and is sinking into its soft, loamy soil at an alarming rate, he said this week.

Smith, giving his scenario for Bangkok in 2025, is renowned in Thailand for controversial predictions.

He was dismissed as a crackpot for his tsunami warnings years before the 2004 Indian Ocean disaster which killed 5,395 Thais and foreign tourists on its Andaman Sea coast.

The problem, he says, is two-fold.

The city is subsiding at a rate of 10 cm (4 inches) per year, partly due to excessive pumping of underground water.

Global warming is causing seas to rise and there is evidence of severe coastal erosion just downstream from Bangkok.