Flood Situation in Asian Institute of Technology October 20, 2011

The AIT President's latest message goes like this:

Dear Members of the AIT Community,

 

I would like to thank all members of the community who participated in this afternoon's forum. 

 

I conducted another inspection of the AIT periphery after the forum. Since my last update earlier today, there has been an increase of 20 cm in the water level in the reservoir at the west side of AIT behind our dykes corresponding to  an average increase of 1.6 cm per hour (from 10:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.), while the water level in the front side of AIT increased 35 cm during the same period corresponding to an average increase of 2.8 cm per hour.

 

As mentioned during the forum, there has been a steady increase in the water levels. While we have increased the height of the dykes and also continue to strengthen them all around the AIT periphery, making them too high could pose a potential threat of dykes collapsing due to build up of water pressure.

 

In order to prevent water from flowing over our earthen dykes or embankments which could pose a risk to soften and wash away the earth, we have adopted an approach to control the overflowing water through a weir (spill way), see picture below, in case water level rises to the level of our dykes. Once the water level reaches a certain level below the top of the dykes, it is planned to let the water flow through the weir into the canals around AIT campus. We will at the same time be continuously pumping water out of the AIT canals. We have finished one weir and will be building another one tomorrow morning.

I  would like to thank Mr. Jaideep Nair, First Secretary, Embassy of India, who called to express his concern and offer of support to the Institute which is greatly appreciated. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Chaovalit Ekabut, President of the AIT Alumni Association - Mother Chapter, for the generous offer of the Alumni Association Mother Chapter to provide 200,000 Baht to AIT to help students.

 

We are closely monitoring the developments and will update members of the AIT community on a regular basis. The AIT campus remains secure as of now.

We thank you once again for your cooperation and vigilance.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Professor Said Irandoust

President

Asian Institute of Technology (AIT)