Thai factories protected from floods

BANGKOK, September 30 (TNA) - As flooding remains worrying in many areas, the Thai Ministry of Industry has opened a war room to monitor the updated situation around the clock to prevent floods at factories and to even prepare immediate assistance, especially in most flood-prone zones. Permanent Secretary for Industry Witoon Simachokedee told reporters on Monday that he has ordered the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT) to closely monitor water levels around the clock, particularly those in the central Ayutthaya Province and other flood-prone areas nationwide. Witoon said that the IEAT has also been instructed to prepare mobile teams to help build floodwalls at needed locations with a few days-completion. Besides, Witoon acknowledged, his ministry has opened a command to closely monitor the flooding situation at industrial sites and ordered senior executives and provincial industrial chiefs to turn on their cell phones around the clock to ensure immediate contacts in case of any emergency. Meanwhile, a local road in front of the 304 Industrial Park in Prachin Buri Province in the Thai East is about 30 centimeters under water but workers have already laid sandbags to protect the industrial site. In Ang Thong Province in the central region, incessant downpours have caused flooding at a quail farm and more than 20,000 quails drowned, while kindergartners at Wat Ang Thong kindergarten school had to wade through a 50-centimeter-deep flood to do an examination at the school located near the Chao Phraya River, in which water levels have been rising due to unceasing rain. In Phitsanulok Province in the Lower Thai North, floods remain critical in eight districts and Wang Pikul-Wang Thong Road has been submerged by deep and strong flood currents at a distance of over one kilometers, causing the road impassable to all kinds of vehicles and isolating affected people in the Wang Pikul and Wang Thong localities. (TNA)