Thai PM allays public fear about flooding, DPM inspects water situation

BANGKOK, September 20 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister and Defence Minister Yingluck Shinawatra insists that people do not have to be worried about flooding because her government has prepared flood prevention and relief well. Yingluck confirmed the government's good preparation to prevent flooding regarding more approaching monsoon storms on Friday morning, when she inspected a sluice of the Saen Saep Canal in Bangkok's Min Buri area. Yingluck noted that her administration has prepared a certain level of flood prevention measures, with their implementation costing about 120 billion baht as part of official operations under the executive decree on water management projects worth 350 billion baht. According to the prime minister, data for Thailand's single command system of water management has also been completely prepared, while provincial governors have been authorized to declare disaster zones to activate disaster prevention and mitigation facilities in their respective areas. The prime minister said on September 23, 2013, Interior Minister Charupong Ruangsuwan will also discuss flood prevention measures in flood-prone areas--where flood prevention facilities are to be perfectly functional--with concerned agencies, including the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA). The prime minister revealed that the government's Water Management and Flood Prevention Commission (WMFPC) is also speeding up drainage to end flooding in areas below dams and to decide on the appropriate amount of water in reservoirs to save enough water for consumption and irrigation. Meanwhile, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi, in his capacity as chief of the government's Office of the National Water and Flood Management Policy (ONWFMP) inspected the water situation in areas near the main Chao Phraya River. The helicopter survey by the ONWFMP chief reportedly found that water levels of the Chao Phraya River in three central Thai provinces, including Sing Buri, Ang Thong and Ayutthaya, remain lower than river banks, except some very low-lying districts, in which local authorities have rendered assistance to flood-affected people. The ONWFMP chief told reporters that he has instructed the Royal Irrigation Department to, however, be extra cautious on the amount of water released from the Chao Phraya Dam in the central Chai Nat Province, where he first inspected and saw discharging water at the normal level now, at 1,500-1,600 cubic meters per second, to ensure that it affects downstream areas as least as possible. Updated reports said a tropical depression which earlier made landfall in Vietnam has downgraded to a low pressure trough and is now unlikely to cause any flooding in Thailand, while the USAGI storm, which was earlier forecast to move to Taiwan and China, is now approaching Thailand's upper parts, instead, with its reduced flooding threat. Water levels in the Bhumibol and Sirikit Dams in the country's upper parts, nonetheless, remain low, the ONWFMP chief mentioned, and he will, probably, order artificial rain operations in the areas, one week after the storm passes to ensure no water shortages in the country's upper parts during the dry season next year. (TNA)