Residents in Nan’s Muang district check out clothing recovered from the floods and put up for sale by the roadside yesterday.

Narin Lao-araya, head of the Nan Provincial Administration Organisation (PAO), said he received a call from the Princess' secretary to say that Her Royal Highness, currently in Japan, had sent relief bags for flood victims and that another lot of relief packages would arrive today.

He quoted the secretary as saying the PAO could fax requests directly should it need more help for the villagers.

Narin said he had asked administrators in neighbouring provinces to send trucks of water to Nan. Though the flood water was receding, insufficient food and drinking water was a problem because villagers still could not use stoves, he said.

Officials had drained flood water from the Princess' Thong Noi residence and restored the garden to normal, he said.

In the worst-hit Tha Wang Pha, district chief Sanit Khemawat said the water had receded in all areas but people still needed to repair and clean houses and infrastructure. Everything should be back to normal within a week, he said.

Sanit said district authorities believed that deforestation in the area north of Nan contributed to the heavy flooding. They planned to launch a reforestation campaign and efforts to conserve natural resources.

Villagers should realise the importance of such work and be more cooperative, he said, now they have experienced the impact of deforestation.

Mongkol Yoosuk, director of Nan's Educational Zone Office Region 2, said 50 schools were temporarily closed and 31 schools damaged by the floods. Schools should reopen on Monday, he said.

In Bangkok, Permanent Secretary for Education Khunying Kasama Varavarn said she would ask to use the CEO governor's budget to help Nan's 60 schools reopen soon. A study of the damage and budget needed was under way, she said.

Kasama was speaking before attending an 8.30am meeting called by the caretaker premier at Government House for related agencies to discuss the flood problem in the North, especially Nan.

After the meeting, caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Suwat Liptapanlop said two people had died and one was still missing in the floods.

About 100,000 people were affected, with 30,000 rai of farmland damaged, 10 houses totally destroyed and 300 partially damaged, he said.

Suwat said the prime minister had ordered the Transport Ministry and military engineers to repair 122 roads, 120 sluice gates and nearly 50 bridges damaged in the floods.

The Environment and Natural Resources Ministry was instructed to repair the damaged piped-water system, the Provincial Electricity Authority to repair the power network, and the Agriculture Ministry to survey agricultural damage to speed up assistance to farmers, Suwat said. The Social Development and Human Security Ministry was asked to help villagers rebuild their homes and to contact the Thai Com Foundation in case prefabricated homes needed to be set up, he said.

Suwat said Thaksin might visit the area this weekend to inspect the rehabilitation work.

The Cabinet had approved Bt150 million for initial assistance for flood victims. The committee for assistance to northern flood victims would finalise relief plans today and report to the Cabinet at its meeting next Tuesday, Suwat said.

He said Thaksin had also asked the Agriculture Ministry to look into reports that encroachment on the Nan River had contributed to the flooding.