Minister visits flood-hit Thai South

TRANG, THAILAND, February 6 (TNA) - Minister Attached to the Prime Minister's Office Omsin Cheewapruek has visited flood-hit Trang Province in the Thai Far South, where an over three–billion baht-state budget has been sought to fund 86 proposed projects for post-flood rehabilitation and long-term solutions for flood problems. Arriving in Trang on Monday, Omsin then held a meeting with local authorities to listen to the provincial proposed solutions to repeated flooding. After the meeting, the minister visited flood victims at their riverside houses who had suffered from a five meter-floodwater for over two months. The rehabilitation work is under way, in the meantime, in Trang and new houses are being constructed for flood-affected villagers, whose houses were destroyed, with the construction set to be completed within three weeks. Trang is one of 12 southern Thai provinces that are hit by massive inundations lately, starting in December 2016, affecting nearly 70,000 people, three of them have died. More than 1,700 houses were destroyed, about 860 of which are being re-built, and over 918,000 rai (about 367,000 acres) of farmlands have been damaged. The provincial authorities have laid out plans for 72 projects to seek a budget of 116 million baht in total from 15 government agencies, while the new 3.7-billion baht-state budget has been requested for 14 more projects to solve provincial flood problems in the long term. (TNA)