Barriers fail to stop relentless flooding
Local people in Ayutthaya use paddleboats on a street in front of Somyang military ordnance office after flooding in the province worsened yesterday.
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Flood barriers in Muang district were unable to stop the Chao Phya River from bursting its banks yesterday, leaving 350 residences including Wat Tal Jed Chor's dormitory for 120 orphans under 2.5 metres of water in less than an hour.
Angthong Governor Wiboon Sanguanphong sent 100 soldiers - who had been piling sandbags and erecting concrete pillars as a back-up to earthen dikes in front of Angthong Hospital - to assist flood victims and use heavy machinery to build flood barriers at nearby areas about to be submerged. Angthong Hospital moved medical equipment to higher ground, conducted a drill for patient evacuation and contacted other hospitals to take its patients in case the hospital was flooded. Major General Ritthikrai Oonpan of the 13th Army Base, whose responsibility covers Chai Nat, Sing Buri, Angthong and Ayutthaya, said Anthong's flood was now beyond critical and worse than 2002. As a result, 1,000 soldiers were being sent to protect flood-risk government offices, hospitals and marketplaces. In Phitsanulok's Bang Rakham district, the Public Health Ministry dispatched mental health officials to prevent suicides among flood-affected residents. Deputy director-general of the Mental Health Department Seree Hongyok said this year's widespread flooding prompted officials to watch for suicidal and depressed patients in flood-hit Nan, Uttaradit, Sukhothai, and Phitsanulok - and might include Angthong and Singburi. From September 5 to October 4, nine districts were flooded, affecting 33,291 people, provincial health official Thawatchai Kamoltham said. The province also had a high suicide attempt rate of 467 cases this year - with 42 succeeding. The worst hit area, Bang Rakham, had 107 villages submerged for 30 days and 29,516 residents affected. Many locals were highly stressed due to crop damage from flooding, he said. Last month, a 50-year-old man in Tambon Pluk Rad committed suicide by drinking pesticide. Meanwhile, permanent secretary for Public Health, Prat Boonyawongvirot ordered health officials to be alert to water-borne diseases including leptospirosis, cholera, diarrhoea, conjunctivitis, measles, dysentery, typhoid, hepatitis and athlete's foot, the latter being responsible for 45 per cent of the 106,218 flood-affected patients. Yesterday 300,000 basic first-aid kits were sent to flood-hit provinces, Prat said. Sing Buri provincial health official Sirichai Limsakul said that since September 29 over 5,268 patients had fallen ill from flood-borne diseases - with 2,600 cases on Wednesday alone. The Chao Phya River destroyed a one-kilometre stretch of flood barriers made of sandbags in Phrom Buri district and submerged 500 homes in Pak Bang market area under 1.5-metres of water in less than two hours. At nearby Tambon Bang Krabeu, the Princess Pa Foundation sent 30 naval officers to pile sandbags along the river to keep the rising water at bay. In Ayutthaya, Muang Phranakhon residents and soldiers piled sandbags to keep floodwater off the island city where many historic sites are located. The Chao Phraya River had nearly breached the barriers at well-known Chaiwattanaram Temple, while the Pasak River managed to rise by 20 centimetres and inundate nearly 60 riverside homes. The Nation ANGTHONG
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