BANGKOK, Oct 2 – Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra today promised to look closely at the plight of flood-hit people who will be granted financial rehabilitation assistance.
She said she directed the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department to survey flood damage as the government is ready to help to those whose properties were damaged inundation – as it did after the massive floods in 2011.
She would not say if a household would be entitled to a Bt5,000 rehabilitation fund but emphasised that an initial assessment of the damage is needed.
Regarding flood prevention for the capital, the prime minister said the governors of the flood-hit provinces were collaborating with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) while the government was managing water flow from the North so that Bangkok’s drainage system would not be overloaded.
Interior Minister Charupong Ruangsuwan has regularly coordinated with provincial governors and the BMA’s Department of Drainage and Sewerage to ensure synchronised water management, said Ms Yingluck.
She admitted that Bangkok’s suburban areas could be flooded when typhoons move into Thailand’s lower Central Plains but gave assurances that anti-flood agencies will work in full force and a special command centre has been set up to address to high-risk areas.
On the formation of a water ministry, she said the government was mulling the plan but such a ministry would not materialise unless the operations of all water-related agencies are integrated.
“Let us solve the water problems and discuss from the available information to determine if we are ready for a ministry. It would be ideal to have all water-related agencies under one roof,” she said.
