Bangkok's flood crisis displaces thousands of workers

In the Khlong Toei district, where water now stands waist-deep in residential lanes and market streets, Somchai Krit sat on a plastic stool outside a shuttered noodle shop on Saturday afternoon, watching the floodwaters creep toward the doorway. Krit, a day labourer who finds work on Bangkok's construction sites, has not earned a wage in five days. The sites are closed. The factories that hire casual workers are idle. His savings, never substantial, are nearly gone.

Thailand's capital declared a state of emergency on Saturday as days of heavy rain left much of the city inundated. Reports from Bangkok suggest that the flooding has disrupted transport, shuttered businesses, and left hundreds of thousands without power. But beneath the headline figures lies a quieter crisis: for the city's poorest workers, the floodwaters have erased their only income.

Krit is not alone. Migrant workers from Laos and Myanmar, domestic service staff, hotel and restaurant workers, and the informal-economy vendors who fill Bangkok's markets are all facing the same calculus—how to survive when the work stops and the water rises.