PM confirms no great floods in Thailand this year

BANGKOK, September 24 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has assured the public that there will be no massive flooding like that in late 2011. Regarding flooding in about 21 Thai provinces currently, Yingluck told reporters on Tuesday that she has ordered the Office of the National Water and Flood Management Policy (ONWFMP) to speed up flood relief operations in all the affected areas and to ensure no repeated massive flooding in the country. Yingluck acknowledged that the overall amount of rainfalls this year has been less than that in 2011, but the floods in the provinces were caused by continual downpours in downstream areas, coupled with high sea levels, but collaboration on integrated water management by parties concerned, including the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), will be able to slow down flows of water from upstream areas. The Thai premier, however, expressed concerns over the flooding in Kabinburi district of Prachinburi province in the Thai East and has assigned Deputy Prime Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi, who heads the ONWFMP, to take care of the heavily-flooded area, while the government is looking after the opening and closing of sluices; so, the flooding in the area should relieve over the next 3-4 days. The prime minister also assessed that flood prevention in most of industrial sites in the central Ayutthaya province will be effective, except the Saharat Nakorn Industrial Estate, where floodwalls were latest built. (TNA)