Disease fear as flood waters choke Bangkok

SAFFRON-ROBED monks, soldiers and volunteers piled sandbags exterior Bangkok's treasured temples and palaces yesterday amid fears the Chao Phraya river will smash its banks, flooding the capital's western suburbs.

Seasonal high tides have previously spilled ankle-deep water from the river into a few tourist districts, as well as the royal Grand Palace A 150-kilometre wide wall of floodwater from Thailand's central plains has been creeping towards Bangkok for days, testing the city's centuries-old flood defences.

Fifteen of Bangkok's 50 districts have been deeply flooded and establishment warn that all of the city could be inundated over the next few daysn ''The water will likely cover the entire western zone of Bangkok, with the level range between 50 centimetres and one metre,'' said Chainat Niyomthoon, a deputy director of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.