Thai officials beat a retreat in their bid to prevent floodwaters from pouring into Bangkok on Thursday, instead adopting a potentially risky new plan for a controlled release of the waters through the city's canals and eastern suburbs.
With massive amounts of water bearing down on the city and worries driving down stock prices in Bangkok and Japan—the biggest foreign investor in Thailand—Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra told reporters there was no option left but to let some floodwater drain through parts of the capital to help free up a flood-stricken industrial belt north of the city.
"We must allow the water to flow through," Ms. Yingluck said. "Very little has been driven to the sea."
Bangkok Gov. Sukhumbhand Paribatra, from the rival Democrat Party, signed off on the radical solution to the worst floods the country has seen in half a century, which have killed at least 320 people since late July.
Mr. Sukhumbhand earlier challenged statements from the national government's flood-response team, urging Bangkok residents to listen to him instead. Relations between city and national leaders have been fraught since a hard-fought election battle brought Ms. Yingluck to power in July.
Bangkok is still mostly dry, but some suburbs are submerged and threaten to inundate the capital.
If the plan works, it could provide some respite for hundreds of businesses affected by the floods, many of them Japanese. Sony Corp. Thursday joined a lengthening list of big-name Japanese manufacturers like Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. in saying Thailand's extreme flooding has derailed production, closing down either plants or key parts suppliers in recent days.
Sony said it had decided to delay the launch of new digital cameras because of flood damage at subcontractors and parts suppliers in Thailand. It was the latest in a series of announcements by Japanese technology players like camera company Nikon Corp. and conglomerate Toshiba Corp., which suspended production of hard disk drives used in personal computers in Thai plants.
The shutdowns highlight how Thailand has attracted Japanese companies seeking cheaper overseas production bases since the 1980s. Japanese auto makers account for a large percentage of automobiles produced in Thailand. It sometimes leaves the blue-chip concerns vulnerable to disruptions from natural disasters—something Japanese companies also contend with at home, most recently after the devastating earthquake that struck northern Japan in March.
Some industry analysts predict Thailand's large support and parts industries mean the severe flooding won't tarnish its long term appeal as a production hub, despite growing investment in neighboring countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia.
"Automotive production in Thailand will be affected in the near term due to the lack of auto-parts supply as a result of the floods," Frost & Sullivan analysts wrote in a note published Thursday, "but is not likely to have a medium-long term effect on Thailand as an automotive production hub in the region."
Japanese trade associations have been critical of the often confusing flood alerts emerging from Thai authorities in recent weeks. After Ms. Yingluck tearfully appealed for political unity Wednesday night, Thailand's city and national governments appear to be cooperating more closely on the new strategy to combat the floods.
The plan calls for Bangkok city officials to open water gates along an intricate series of canals, including some in the city's core, to speed up the run-off from waters trapped north of the city. Officials said the new strategy was unpredictable and couldn't rule out spillages in some key areas of the city, triggering a fresh wave of unease among the city's residents.
Some people parked their cars on elevated toll-ways to protect them from rising floodwaters. Television footage showed police attempting to tow them away to unclog massive traffic jams. International schools in the city began to close, while providers of bottled water delivery services sent notes to customers saying they were temporarily unable to keep up supply. In the city center, some restaurants, bars and hotels barricaded themselves behind piles of sandbags.
Other people rushed to join soldiers in a last-gasp effort to build embankments to push the worst of the floodwaters away from the most populated parts of the city. Even Greek musician Yanni, who played a concert in Bangkok a few nights earlier, turned out to lend a hand.
In some places, it was already too late. In Nong Chok in eastern Bangkok, fish farmer Sorn Sampaothong said water from overflowing canals swept through his house and into six fish pounds in his compound. "All of my fish are gone. I've lost about 500,000 baht ($16,250)," said Mr. Sorn, 61 years old, who added he wouldn't seek help at an evacuation shelter.
"This is my house, and I'm worried about my belongings," he said.
In Minburi, also in eastern Bangkok, 10-year-old Woraphan Rodpetch said animals such as snakes, scorpions and crocodiles were posing a fresh menace as the flood-waters rose."I've seen many kinds of snakes. Some eat fish and others ones are black and white. I'm very frightened and I'm scared they will bite my legs in the water," she said. Ms. Woraphan said neighbors already had caught four crocodiles.
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