Angry residents at Klong Sam Wa force PM to let through fetid water flooding their area for 3 months

Scenes at Bangkok's Klong Sam Wa sluice gate have been far from the feel-good images of Bangkokians pitching in and helping each other battle what some have dubbed the worst flood in a century.

Instead of people caring for one another and smiling while handing out food and other relief, residents have been living with flood water for nearly three months - and many have decided they've had enough.

Some 500 showed up on Sunday night, and by yesterday afternoon, after rounds of noisy confrontation and the deployment of hundreds of police, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra herself had to order the sluice gate open - up to a metre higher - to relieve some of the stagnant water that had turned stinky.

"Thank you, thank you," a senior police officer was heard on a megaphone at 3pm, announcing that authorities had yielded to demands of angry residents on this northeast fringe of Bangkok, to have the gate lifted by up to a metre.

Sombat Samanna, one of the angry residents, said some MPs visited them when the flood first arrived and told them "this area is to be sacrificed".

"We've been pretty much on our own since," complained Sombat, who said the flood that was originally knee-deep was now waist-deep, and the water foul smelling. And it had been nearly three months, he said, comparing it to the two weeks people in nearby Pathum Thani province have endured so far.

Rawan Sangsinchai, another resident, said she and her neighbours tried to call the district office for help but things had been "very slow".

Others said they wouldn't vote for Pheu Thai MP for Klong Sam Wa, Jirayu Huangsab, again as he hadn't been seen all these weeks.

At the site, trying to defend his junior colleague was Vicharn Minchainant, Pheu Thai MP from Min Buri, the district next door. Vicharn said Jirayu was very busy at the moment.

Some residents were anxious that the government may renege later on its decision to raise the watergate. One told me their MP would be held responsible if such a thing occurs.

Facing news cameras, Vicharn sounded sympathetic. "If people were being looked after and helped to understand, they wouldn't be doing these things," he said about the gathering with no clear leadership that has represented affected communities.

"I'm a [nearby] local MP and when people suffer, I must talk with them and not ignore [what's happening]," he said.

"If we don't talk like this, then people will do what they want," the MP added. "It all depends on public relations and in making people understand. But if we can't provide answers for the people, there'll be problems."

Soon after most reporters had left and the cameras gone, a few residents clamoured around Vicharn to give him a list of what they needed - dry food, drinking water, a floating toilet and a boat.

But just a stone's throw away, at the sluice gate, angry residents continued to dig up the soil next to one side of the watergate, allowing water to flow down towards the city centre unimpeded by the gate, into the Saen Saeb canal, which cuts through central Bangkok. Police merely watched. One said he didn't really know what he should do, given the situation.

The gap in the earth widened to one-and-a-half-metres in diameter and the foul current of water kept flowing rapidly.

"Sam Wa fight! Fight!" a woman shouted, adding that they should not go home but keep guard at the watergate.

"Keep digging!" shouted another.

Others whom I talked with said the government would not have paid any attention if residents hadn't formed the "mob" to force a better result for themselves.