Thai PM to visit flood-hit areas

BANGKOK, October 4 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha will visit flood-hit areas in the central Ayutthaya Province on October 5 to inspect the situation and to meet local villagers. The prime minister is scheduled to visit flood-stricken communities located along the Noi River in Sena District. Expressing a hope to meet the prime minister on the occasion, a 74-year-old local villager said on Tuesday she would ask the prime minister to find a practical solution to the problem of repeated and persistently-high inundations in her low-lying community. Meanwhile, water levels in the Noi and the Chao Phraya Rivers have declined, helping narrow flood-hit areas to communities along riverbanks, thanks to the reduced volume of water released from the Chao Phraya Dam in Chinat Province to 1,717 cubic metres per second, from nearly 2,000 cubic metres per second earlier. However, concerns over high inundations remain in downstream areas of the Rama VI Dam, particularly in Ta Rua and Nakhon Luang Districts of Ayutthaya, as officials need to increase the volume of water released from the dam to 536 cubic metres per second, causing the water level in the lower part of the Pa Sak River to have been rising and prompting local authorities and communities' leaders to be on high alert to prevent overflows from the river by urgently erecting dykes in areas at risk to protect local households and farmlands from floods. (TNA)