PM orders authorities to take best care of flood victims in Thai North

BANGKOK, September 10 (TNA) - Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has expressed her concerns over the plight of flood victims in the Thai North, particularly those in Sukhothai Province, and has ordered governors of flood-hit provinces and the Ministry of Interior's Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation to speed up addressing the flooding problem and to take best care of the flood victims. Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department Director-General Wibul Sa-nguan-pong told journalists on Monday that the prime minister also ordered his department to prepare for, probably, more floods, suggesting if flooding was found in any area, the department should speedily bring the situation under control to limit inundations. After a meeting of the government-appointed Water and Flood Resources Management Committee (WFRMC), chaired by the prime minister, one of the committee members, Royon Jitdon, told reporters Monday afternoon that the current floods in Sukhothai were caused by flash floods and collapsed walls, as the province could only withstand 800 cubic metres of water per second. Royon said that more rain is predicted at the end of this week and his committee has been prepared to handle the situation based on its plans. Meanwhile, the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) has dispatched some 100 workers to fix a northbound track in the northern Lamphun Province, after recent torrential downpours eroded ground beneath the track, but the repair work has been hampered by more heavy downpours overnight. SRT’s executives assessed, however, that the northern train service should be resumed by noon tomorrow, noting that passengers can take the northern trains as usual, but they have had to take buses from Lampang to Lamphun and Chiang Mai Provinces. Thailand’s Ministry of Culture has, on the other hand, stepped up measures to prevent and mitigate inundation impacts on ancient sites in Sukhothai and central Ayutthaya Provinces. Culture Minister Sukumol Khunpleum (สุกุมล คุณปลื้ม) told reporters that there have been, nonetheless, no reports of any damage to the Thai historical sites so far, after floods recently hit Sukhothai’s municipal areas, and that she has ordered local officials to raise the height of floodwalls in Ayutthaya Province to 1.50 metres and to speed up dredging watarways around the provincial historical sites.(TNA)