( CNN ) -- Thai authorities are considering the construction of a super-express waterway through Bangkok to prevent future floods similar to the one that has crippled the Thai capital and brought manufacturing in other parts of the country to a standstill . A team of disaster experts from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok is now investigating permanent solutions to the disaster that has left hundreds dead . `` One of the urgent solutions is a super-express floodway , '' Thanawat Jarupongsakul , from the university 's Unit for Disaster and Land Information Studies , told the Bangkok Post . Under the plan , existing natural canals -- some of them more than 100 kilometers ( 62 miles ) long -- would be linked in a 200-km `` super-highway '' that would divert the course of floodwaters from the north . The super-canal would hold 1.6 billion cubic meters of water and drain run-off at a rate of 6,000 cubic meters per second -- the equivalent of two and a half Olympic-sized swimming pools a second . `` This idea is much cheaper than digging a new river as a floodway , '' Thanawat said . He said the proposed scheme would involve the construction of a kilometer-wide exclusion zone next to the floodway to prevent properties from being inundated , and a raised highway on both side of the canal . The super-express floodway would then drain upstream run-off directly into the sea . The university team is also looking at other flood-prevention measures such as a better early-warning system , improved water resource management , a flood tax , the use of a flood-risk map for urban development and groundwater-use controls . `` Now , the government must stop [ trying to ] solve flood problems with political methods , '' Thanawat told the Bangkok Post . He said poor water management rather than excess rain had caused this year 's severe flooding , adding that natural swamps in the west of Thailand 's Central Plains , which once absorbed water flow , had been developed into industrial and residential areas , blocking the natural floodway . While giant flood tunnels in the Bangkok metropolitan area could drain floodwater from the city , they could not cope with a massive inundation from the north . `` If there is no step forward , foreign investors will eventually disappear from the country and the next generation will be still worried whether flooding will happen or not , '' he said .
Thai authorities consider super-express waterway to prevent future floods . Under the plan , existing natural canals would be linked in 200-km `` super-highway '' Super-canal would hold 1.6B cubic meters of water and massively speed drain run-off .