FLOODS
POST REPORTERS
Cabinet will earmark an emergency budget to help more than 800,000 flood-hit people in 24 provinces at its meeting today.
The flooding disaster which has ravaged the North, the Northeast, and the Central regions for over two weeks will head today's special cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat said after returning from Hua Hin where he lead cabinet members to take an oath before His Majesty the King.
The flood has claimed 14 lives, and one person is missing.
Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Somsak Prissnantakul said he would ask cabinet to speed up allocation of flood relief so that affected villagers, mostly farmers, could get their lives back on track as soon as possible.
Mr Somsak said he did not to repeat the flaws in last year's flood relief operation, when allocation of flood-relief money was so slow that even now, some flood-hit farmers have yet receive their aid money.
He would punish any state officials found helping themselves to the flood relief budget.
He was responding to concern over corruption in the disaster relief budget, which occasionally goes into the pockets of political canvassers instead of flood victims.
"Any official who aggravates farmers' troubles by mismanaging the flood relief budget will be transferred to an inactive post immediately," said Mr Somsak, who secured the agriculture portfolio for a second term under Chart Thai party's quota.
According to the ministry, the floods have hit almost two million rai of farmland, resulting in an estimated 1.17 billion baht of damage.
Lop Buri is the worst-hit province with over 90,000 rai of paddy fields, fruit orchards, and crop plantations inundated.
Mongkut Sitthika, a flood-hit farmer from Nakhon Ratchasima, said the floods had plunged farmers deeper into financial crisis.
"After the previous flood in May, we borrowed a lot of money to invest in our farmland and expected to sell the crops to pay back our debt. But then this flood came and destroyed everything," he said. "We are so desperate, we don't know what to do now."
The Disaster Mitigation and Prevention Department said flooding has eased in 16 provinces, but the situation in another eight provinces is still worrying.
They are Phitsanulok, Lop Buri, Ayutthaya, Nongbua Lamphu, Chaiyaphum, Khon Kaen, Nakhon Ratchasima, and Prachin Buri provinces.
Ayutthaya's governor yesterday declared Pamok district a disaster zone after overflows from the Chao Phraya river submerged several houses in the district.
Water levels in the the river continue to rise and have almost passed flood level in several spots. Flood warnings have been issued to riverside communities.
Phichit governor Preecha Ruangchan declared another four districts disaster zones after the water level in the Yom river continued to rise, and floods began submerging lowlands in Sam Ngam, Pho Prathap Chang, Wachira Banrami, and Bung Na Rang districts.
Mr Preecha said authorities had kept a close watch on the Yom river which was less than 20cm below the river bank in some spots yesterday.
In Tak's Mae Sot district, about 5,000 homes were hit by a flash flood triggered by heavy rain which caused the Mae Sot reservoir to overflow into downstream communities. The houses were submerged in 1-1.5 metres of water, and thousands of villagers have been evacuated to safer ground.
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