After this week's floods, the follow-up question in Kamala is simple: where is all that water supposed to go? A senior transport official walked the flood-hit areas on October 30, and the answer officials came back with is that parts of the drainage system itself are too small and partly blocked — and fixing them will take central government money.
In Kamala, officials pointed to drainage channels running to the sea that are too narrow to carry the volume from downpours lasting two to three hours. A highways bridge also works against the flow, with support pillars sitting in the middle of the waterway. Surveys and designs for improved drainage are already done, costed at no more than ฿50 million, and the province is now coordinating a request for central funding. The highways department has also been told to design a replacement bridge with better drainage, and the Marine Department is to dredge sediment from the downstream waterway.
Patong got attention in the same visit. The channel outlet where drainage meets the sea has grown shallow, filled by sediment washed down from the hills and material pushed in by the sea — slowing drainage in heavy rain and even affecting boats. The plan there is an annual maintenance programme with regular surveys and dredging, plus talks about developing the Patong waterfront as a public space with a walkway and open-air market. Officials also warned against hillside encroachment and unauthorised excavation in Patong, saying altered terrain raises landslide and flash-flood risk, and said legal action over encroachment is already under way.
Roads were the other half of the inspection. At a landslide site on Route 4030 — the coastal road linking Patong, Kamala, Kata and Karon — the highways department was ordered to assess the hillside and road structure urgently and prepare a repair plan, with longer-term measures to stop further slides and monitoring of high-risk spots while work goes on. Flood impacts along Route 4030 and Patak Road from Chalong to Karon were also on the inspection list.
None of this is shovels in the ground yet — it is surveys, designs and a funding request. But it is the first concrete price tag put on Kamala's flooding problem this week, and anyone living or staying on the west coast will want to watch whether the ฿50 million actually arrives before the next big rain does.
Full story: The Phuket News — B50mn drainage plan proposed for flood-hit Kamala
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