Bangkok at breaking point as floods turn streets into stagnant lakes

Europe Climate Mon, 05 Oct 2026 02:02:30 GMT High confidence — 76/100

Bangkok is used to absorbing the sudden afternoon downpours that inundate the city during the rainy season.
Even streets in many central high-rise districts can briefly turn into rivers, with rats and cockroaches racing out of sewers and taking temporary refuge on trees and buildings as the subterranean world is flushed out.
But every city has a breaking point, and this year rain fell so fast and so hard that whole neighbourhoods of the Thai capital have been transformed, not into rivers, but stagnant lakes.

Bangkok is used to absorbing the sudden afternoon downpours that inundate the city during the rainy season.
Even streets in many central high-rise districts can briefly turn into rivers, with rats and cockroaches racing out of sewers and taking temporary refuge on trees and buildings as the subterranean world is flushed out.
But every city has a breaking point, and this year rain fell so fast and so hard that whole neighbourhoods of the Thai capital have been transformed, not into rivers, but stagnant lakes.

Sources: Guardian