Flood tide threatens 21 great cities

A series of major cities around the world are under high tide and other disasters involving weather changes threaten, the World Watch Institute said. Of the 33 cities that are expected to have at least 8 million people by 2015, at least 21 cities are at high risk.

This list includes cities like Dhaka - Bangladesh, Buenos Aires - Argentina, Rio de Janeiro - Brazil, Shanghai and Tianjin - China, Alexandria and Cairo - Egypt, Mumbai and Kolkata - India, Jakarta - Indonesia, Tokyo and Osaka, Kobe - Japan, Lagos - Nigeria, Karachi - Pakistan, Bangkok - Thailand, New York, Los Angeles in the US, research by the United Nations and other organizations show.

More than a tenth of the world's population, about 643 million people, live in low-lying areas, vulnerable to climate change, US and European experts say. High-risk countries, in descending order, include China, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan, Egypt, the United States, Thailand and the Philippines.

Bangkok may be submerged

A Thai monk is walking along the dam as he and many others from a temple in Bangkok work to prevent tides (Photo: VNN)

According to a warning by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, based in Thailand, the tides add to the ongoing land subsidence, the capital of Thailand's more than 10 million people is at risk of being engulfed in this century.

Bangkok is one of 13 major cities in the 20 cities that are at risk of sinking when the sea level rises in the next few decades.

Bangkok will be sunk to destroy the economic hub of this country and the tourist center of the region."If Thailand's center is under water, everything will be stopped," said Smith Dharmasaroja, chairman of the Thai government's national disaster warning committee. "We don't have enough time to move the capital in the next 15-20 years. We have to protect our hearts right now or it will be too late."

Bangkok, which was built on clay rather than rock, is getting faster and faster than 10.16cm / year when people here and factories pump about 2.5 million tons of cheap water. , legally or illegally, away from aquifers - which are responsible for binding clay floors, causing the soil to sink.

Hoai Linh