PM orders coordinated help for flood victims

BANGKOK, September 25 (TNA) - Prime Minister and Defence Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has stressed on coordinated and urgent assistance for flood victims by government agencies concerned. Chatchai Phromlert, Director-General of the Ministry of Interior's Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, told reporters on Wednesday that Premier Yingluck has instructed his department to collaborate with the Water Management and Flood Prevention Commission and provincial governors to immediately assist people in flood-hit areas. Chatchai elaborated that the prime minister wants the concerned agencies to manage water, help flood victims right away and inform the public of water management measures and assistance. Chatchai acknowledged that his department and concerned agencies have, therefore, mobilized 4,345 rescue workers and volunteers to help the flood victims, including providing them with 30,925 bags of necessities, 35,000 bottles of drinking water and 24,000 sets of medical supplies, as well as six vehicles with machines to produce drinking water, 139 tents, 1,054 boats and 155 water pumps. According to the senior official, flooding has happened in 27 Thai provinces, affecting about 1.8 million people and damaging 4,069 houses, 1,054 square kilometers of farmlands, 850 roads and 59 bridges since September 17, 2013. The inundations hit nine northeastern provinces, six northern provinces, four provinces each in the eastern and central regions and one southern province, but flooding has been relieving in two provinces. The Meteorological Department, however, predicted more heavy monsoon downpours in the Lower North, the upper part of the Central Plain and the Northeast from September 25-28. The Royal Irrigation Department is, on the other hand, increasingly discharging water from the Chao Phraya Dam into the Chao Phraya River to prepare for receiving additional rainwater, with its faster release probably affecting communities outside floodwalls, including those in Ang Thong province. The senior offiical acknowledged although the amount of rainwater this year is lower than that in 2011, continual downpours and high tides from the sea may affect many low-lying areas, including Ratchapha Thapthim Ruamjai, one of 27 communities standing outside floodwalls along the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok. The flood control center of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) reported that water levels of the Chao Phraya River in the capital peaked at 1.50 meters above the mean sea level on Wednesday morning, prompting BMA authorities to have advised people to move their belongings to higher grounds because when the water levels in the Chao Phraya River exceed 1.75 meters, people outside floodwalls will be affected. The Royal Thai Navy is installing water propellers at 10 locations, as asked by the Water Management and Flood Prevention Commission, including those in Prachin Buri province in the Thai East, as well as in Bang Khen, Thawi Watthana and Phraya Ratchamontri Canals in Bangkok. Meanwhile, masses of water from the upper part of the Northeast are converging in the Mun River and, consequently, nearly 320 square kilometers of farmlands in Ubon Ratchathani province are flooded, affecting more than 20,000 farmers, as water levels of the Mun River have kept rising by 30 centimeters daily. Nine communities and commercial areas in the Thap Khlor Municipality of Phichit province in the Lower North are facing their severest floods in 10 years, with floodwater being as high as over one meters deep. Soldiers from the Somdet Phra Naresuan Maharaj military camp and the Wing 46 and villagers are trying to repair a damaged embankment with sandbags, trunks and branches in nearby Phitsanulok province, as the rupture sent floods to communities and farmlands. (TNA)