Floods lay waste to 36 Thai provinces

Straits Times 22 Sep 08;

Mobile units sent to give aid to about 700,000; at least 16 reported dead
BANGKOK: Severe flooding across Thailand has left at least 16 people dead and more than half a million struggling to cope with damaged property and disease, officials and news reports said yesterday.

Floods caused by heavy rain since the second week of this month have deluged 36 of Thailand's 76 provinces in the north, east and centre of the kingdom, affecting almost 700,000 people, the disaster prevention department said.

A total of 123,407 people have sought treatment for flood-related diseases over the past 10 days, the permanent secretary for public health said yesterday. Of them, 41 per cent suffered from athlete's foot, 32 per cent from cold and 11 per cent from rashes, Dr Prat Boonyawongwiroj added.

On Saturday alone, 69,461 people received treatment from the hundreds of public-health mobile units deployed in flood-hit areas, he said.

Nearly 1,900 houses, hundreds of roads and tens of thousands of acres of farmland have also been damaged in the floods, officials have said.

The cost of the damage is estimated at 28.55 million baht (S$1.2 million) so far.

In the worst-hit areas, people have evacuated to high ground. Many others are living on upper floors of homes.

'Flood waters are more than 2m deep in many areas,' Tambon Kabin Municipality mayor Rangsan Bootnien said.

In Nakhon Ratchasima, the overflowing Lamtakhong Dam has flooded the main city. Chao Phraya levels are around 1.52m, prompting the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) to suggest that the capital will not face serious flooding.

'Only those without flood barriers will be affected, and only for an hour when the high tide comes,' deputy Bangkok city clerk Somsak Klanpoj said.

The disaster prevention department said two people remained missing. It did not say how the 16 people had been killed, but local media reports said most had been swept away in flood waters.

The authorities are delivering essentials such as food, drinking water and medicine to those affected, officials said.

Also yesterday, the meteorological department warned residents of Phechabun, Lop Buri, Surin and Prachin Buri provinces to be on the alert as the main rivers there could burst their banks.

Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat inspected flood barriers at ancient sites in Ayutthaya province.

Despite the recent building of a protective embankment around the province's Wat Chaiwattanaram temple, a World Heritage site, floods caused by heavy rain late on Saturday had begun to inundate the temple grounds, Thai News Agency reported.

The province's Maharat, Pak Hai, Bang Ban and Bang Sai districts were also inundated with 1m-deep flood waters.

Local farmers urged Mr Somchai to reconsider diverting the flood waters into natural water-retaining fields, which are now their rice fields.

He was also briefed that Phitsanulok, Lop Buri, Sara Buri, Nong Bua Lamphu and Khon Kaen provinces had been ravaged by floods. But he was told that they should be back to normal in four days if the rains subside. Lop Buri, however, is expected to take a month to recover.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, THE NATION/ASIA NEWS NETWORK