SCWRM head:There will be no flooding crisis in Thailand this year

BANGKOK, January 30 (TNA) - Virabongse Ramakura, head of the Thai government's Strategic Committee for Water Resources Management or SCWRM, has confirmed that Thailand will not suffer severe floods again this year although many parties have anticipated excessive rainwater and early downpours. Virabongse said, when delivering a speech on water management strategies of Thailand to Japanese investors, here on Monday that the Thai government now has a good water management plan, covering waterway dredging and the construction of flood-dykes. Virabongse acknowledged that the Thai government will also set up a public organization tasked with natural disaster prevention and relief soon and the Cabinet will approve a bill for the establishment of the organization, whose board is chaired by the prime minister and representatives of agencies related to water management are its members. According to the SCWRM head, when there is a natural disaster, the newly-set up organization will have absolute power to deal with the natural disaster and control other relevant agencies in relief operations. Regarding to the Thai government's new management plan on industrial sites in the wake of last year's flooding crisis, the SCWRM chairman revealed that the government plans to develop new industrial estates in Chiang Mai and Lamphun Provinces in the Thai North, Udon Thani and Khon Kaen Provinces in the Thai Northeast and Chachoengsao and Prachin Buri in the Thai East; while authorities will better coordinate, under a government short-term water drainage solution based on a single command policy, water discharges from dams which were previously under the control of the Royal Irrigation Department and the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT). Floodwater in the Central Plain will also be drained through the Chao Phraya River and other waterways to its east and west. Bangkok will also operate its big drainage tunnels to cope with floodwater; so, Virabongsa said, Thailand's flood damages will be limited in the future. (TNA)