Reams of black wiring suspended between poles, haphazardly bundled into nest-like knots, and often hanging at head height are a common sight in Bangkok, and has become almost synonymous with the city.
“If you walk around my area, there are many wire bundles hanging down to human height or sitting on the ground along the pedestrian walkway,” says Kullapa Sakkaravech, a language teacher from Bangkok.
She lives in what is considered “the new central business district” of Bangkok, where she says “clouds of wire bundles” still hang in front of her apartment.
Photo: Reuters
“Apart from being unappealing, this can potentially be dangerous for kids and especially hazardous during flood or raining season,” she says.
However, following a Twitter post by actor Russell Crowe, that could be about to change.
In a post captioned “Bangkok dreaming,” Crowe, who was in Thailand throughout September and October filming Vietnam war movie The Greatest Beer Run Ever, shared a photograph of the city’s much-reviled communication and electrical wires.
The post spurred others to share similar images, along with questions as to why they were in such a state.
Now, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has called for electrical and communications cables to be better organized and put underground.
Many wires might no longer be needed, but cannot be removed because they’re so entangled, says Napong Rugkhapan, an assistant professor in urban planning at Thammasat University in Bangkok.
“When an internet service provider wants to add in a new line for a new condominium being constructed, they add to that because it’s not their responsibility to take [any] out,” he says.
However, given the numerous previous calls for the webs of wires to be moved underground, some are skeptical as to whether this latest push — even one inspired by a Hollywood actor — would change anything.
The fact that no one has died as a result of the wires means that it is not at the top of the agenda, Rugkhapan says.
Yet people stumble over fallen cables daily, he added.
Sakkaravech says: “There was a time when we had heavy rain, a tree fell and pulled down a bundled wire causing an electricity outage to residents.”
Thus far, a lack of coordination between the various agencies and limited political will has been to blame for the slow progress, Rugkhapan says.
Celebrity involvement in the issue can be traced back to 2016, when Microsoft cofounder and philanthropist Bill Gates commented on Thailand’s “tangled wires” on Facebook.
The post was deleted after Gates wrongly identified the wires as power lines rather than communication wires.
Historically, electrical authorities have blamed the telecommunications industry for the increasing number of lines and messy wires.
Following Gates’ post, the Thai Provincial Electricity Authority reportedly produced a graphic making the distinction.
In response to Crowe’s picture, Bangkok’s Metropolitan Electricity Authority released a statement clarifying that the wires depicted were not power lines, but communications lines.
Authorities in 2016 committed to putting 127km of power and communication cables underground. Prayuth urged the agencies to speed up the first phase, which focused on 39 roads in and around the capital. In 2019, Bangkok Governor Aswin Kwanmuang launched another initiative, committing the city government to moving communications lines underground within two years.
Progress has been made in certain areas, including on major thoroughfares such as Silom and Sukhumvit, but navigating hazardous wiring is still a part of daily life in much of the city.
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