Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin is due today to chair a meeting of agencies responsible for water management, ahead of increased rainfall, forecast by for this month by the Meteorological Department, and possible flooding.
Many areas in 11 northern and eastern provinces are already flooded as La Niña weather phenomenon looms.
It is reported that the Royal Irrigation Department has instructed officials supervising mid-sized reservoirs to drain water, to create more room for inflows.
Agencies responsible for the prevention and mitigation of flooding are on standby, with manpower and equipment ready to help flood victims at short notice.
In Nakhon Nayok province, some resorts near a stream were flooded in the early hours of Sunday, forcing a number of people to evacuate in a hurry, with some unable to save their belongings.
One visitor, from Ayutthaya, told the media that he and his friends were staying at a resort and woke up in the middle of the night to find floodwater had already reached his bed.
He and his friends scrambled out of the room and found the entire resort was flooded waist deep and the currents were strong. He added that their two cars were also under water, as he complained that no one had warned them in advance of the possibility of flooding.
Singha But-amkha, an employee of one resort, said overflows from a stream started pouring into the resort at about midnight and the level quickly rose to waist height.
He claimed that irrigation officials at Khun Dan Prakarn Chon had discharged excess water to ease increasing pressure on the dam.
He said some 20 customers in the resort had been safely evacuated, but several cars were inundated because their owners were unable to drive them to higher ground in time.
Singha maintains that no one in the area had been warned in advance of the flooding.
File photo:
