PM orders urgent assistance for flood victims in Thai south

BANGKOK, December 26 (TNA) - Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra says that she has instructed the Ministry of Interior's Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation to urgently assist floods victims in the Thai South, including those in southern border areas. Yingluck told journalists on Tuesday, after the Thai Cabinet's last meeting for this year, that she has ordered her team of officials concerned to closely monitor the amount of rainfalls in the flooded areas and the government-appointed Water Resources Management and Flood Control Committee (WRMFCC) to review its strategies in handling the country's water situation, taking the problem of climate change into account. Yingluck acknowledged although the overall amount of rainfalls this year is not much, more downpours have been reported in the central region, covering Bangkok, and there is a tendency of increasing rainfalls in the southern region; so, integrated measures need to be jointly prepared by the WRMFCC and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment for the water situation next year. Deputy Permanent Secretary for Public Health Dr. Sophon Mekthon said, on the other hand, he has received a preliminary report that 5 southern Thai provinces have been hit by current floods, including Nakhon Si Tammarat, Surat Thani, Pattalung, Songkhla and Narathiwat, with the southernmost Narathiwat Province having been hardest hit as 13 districts have been submerged by as high as some 50 centimetres of floodwater. Despite the flooding in the Thai deep South, Thai Army Chief General Prayuth Chan O-cha paid a visit to the violence-plagued southern border region on Tuesday, reiterating an official policy on having soldiers to temporarily teach students at local schools where there are shortages of teachers until more teachers are filled. The Thai army commander-in-chief and his entourage visited Pattani province to inspect the updated situation. (TNA)