Sena district is a lowland area into which water can flow, but vendors there say local authorities implemented no urgent measures to assist them and instead focusing more on saving nearby rice paddies.

Hit by the heaviest flooding in its history, Sena District in Ayutthaya is now an underwater world where damages will run into the hundreds of millions of baht and all business transactions have ground to a halt.

At least two banks, Krungthai Bank and Siam City Bank, closed on Monday after rising waters broke temporary cement barriers and inundated their branch offices. They reopened yesterday after moving to the second floor.

Fresh food and vegetable vendors have fled to outlying areas of the district which have not been affected.

"It is like a deserted town," said Manop Ketsungpradit, owner of Mae Kim Lai goldsmith shop in Sena. "Nearly 100 per cent of the shops in Sena have closed down and none are doing business."

Almost Bt50 million in business transactions in the district have been absolutely halted. The water is now 1.45 metres high - or up to my neck. Everybody now is staying in their homes and doing everything to save their belongings."

Manop, which closed his gold shop almost a week ago, said that the flood had hit the two square kilometres of Sena district known as the Baanpan Market on September 16. The flood this year is heavier than those in 1995 and 2002.

"Sena district is a lowland where water can flow easily from anywhere around the area. However, I don't understand why the local authorities have taken no urgent measures to assist us in this crisis," said Manop.

He said that instead the local authorities had not diverted water to the 100,000 rai of rice plantations surrounding Sena district because they did not want to damage the rice fields.

Thatchai Saralpornkul, owner of Kaew Bakery in the heart of the Baanpan Market, said that all shop vendors and villagers of Sena District were struggling to save their homes and belongings.

The first floor of his Kaew Bakery shop was inundated, forcing his family to move to the second floor.

Yesterday they were selling groceries through the second-storey window.

"This flood is the most terrible of my life. I have shouldered almost Bt100,000 in losses. My store's sales dropped from between Bt10,000 and Bt20,000 a day to less than Bt1,000," said Thatchai, adding that the local authorities had set their sights on protecting rice farmers, not shop vendors in the city area.

Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn

The Nation