(Bangkok, Thailand) In the inner suburbs of Bangkok, Thailand, the coastline is disappearing at full speed as the water surrounds disadvantaged neighborhoods. If scientists and young activists sound the alarm bells, they are struggling to make themselves heard.
Sheltered from the tropical sun by an arbor of woven leaves, Samorn Kangsamut frantically searches a stack of laminated papers. Newspaper articles, satellite maps, period photos, scientific studies… The mass of information is relentless. “Our village will soon disappear under water”, exclaims the matriarch of Ban Khun Samut. This small fishing village is located on the coast of the Gulf of Thailand, not far from Bangkok.
“I have sounded the alarm bells for 20 years, but the government told me there was nothing they could do about it. ”
A few hundred meters further, the Buddhist temple Wat Khun Samut offers vivid proof of the danger lurking in the small community. Located more than 1 km from the sea 30 years ago, the place of prayer is today completely surrounded by water, to the point that a bridge had to be erected to connect it to the mainland.
PHOTO THÉOPHILE SIMON, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Aerial view of the Wat Khun Samut Buddhist temple, which stood in the middle of the countryside only thirty years ago.
“Rising sea levels are one of the main causes of rising sea levels in Thailand,” recalls Seree Supradit, climatologist at Rangsit University and member of the IPCC.
“The sea rises by 4 mm per year on average and it is accelerating, which will cause the coastline to retreat by almost 2 km more within 20 years”, specifies Thanawat Jarupongsakul, a geologist who studies the coastal erosion since the 1990s. At the forefront of the rise of the oceans, the inhabitants bear witness to the upheaval at work. “The climate is becoming extreme, that’s obvious. The waves are higher and stronger than before, ”explains Witsanut Kengsamut, mayor of the village.
“There is no longer a future here”
After unsuccessfully trying to stem the phenomenon by erecting bamboo dikes and replanting mangroves, the villagers became fatalists. “This house will collapse in less than two years,” predicts Prayuth Poltaisong, 40, pointing to his neighbor’s house. As for me, I am preparing to leave the premises within ten years. There is no longer a future here. ”
The village school, moved for the first time, does not tell another story: with a staff of 200 students 20 years ago, it now only accepts 6 children.
Everyone has left the village, we are the last generation. But before we leave, I want to make the temple a memorial to the effects of global warming.
Witsanut Kengsamut, Mayor of Ban Khun Samut
After his case gained publicity in the 2000s, the Wat Khun Samut temple became a tourist attraction and attracted hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations. “All the stars of the country came to take their photo, remembers the city councilor, bitter. But the money collected was only used to build a rampart around the temple, to build a replica and to surround [des] restaurants. We were asking for a dike, we got souvenir shops. ”
Are Thais impervious to global warming? “Certainly, regrets Seree Supratid. A cataclysm is brewing and the majority still ignore all of these questions. ”
Rolled by a gigantic flood in 2011 and a new one at the beginning of November 2021, many residents located by the river, in disadvantaged neighborhoods of Bangkok, claim to know nothing about global warming. “I’ve heard of it, but I don’t know what it is,” says Sujrat, 60.
PHOTO THÉOPHILE SIMON, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Sujrat, 60, has heard of global warming but doesn’t know what it is.
She lives with her son in a tiny wooden building whose furniture still bears the scars of the November floods. “But I trust the government not to let Bangkok be flooded for good. ”
Climate injustice
“This is the perfect example of climate injustice,” analyzes Tara Buakamsri, director of the Thai branch of Greenpeace. Thailand is an emitter of CO2 relatively small, but one of the most exposed to sea level rise. And its first victims are the poorest. ”
A new generation of local activists has recently emerged, determined not to let Bangkok become an Asian Atlantis. From the top of her 14 years, Lilly Satidtanasarn wants to contribute to change.
PHOTO THÉOPHILE SIMON, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Lilly Satidtanasarn, 14, is campaigning to educate her government on climate change.
The teenager created a pressure group to urge the government to set more ambitious greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.
“We do not talk enough about global warming in Thailand”, explains the young girl, who cites Greta Thunberg as a model. “People always think it comes down to a few degrees warmer in the hot season, and the ramifications are immense. “