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Published on October 17, 2007

The people of Ban Kaeng Tone village in Tambon Nasum said they were forced to live in a school football field and often went hungry.

Khammul Kaewkhem, 35, said she and six neighbouring families lost their homes in the torrents while 80 other families had partially damaged homes.

She said 30 people, including herself, currently lived in tents set up by the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department at Ban Kaeng Tone School.

Khammul said the tents did not protect them from the heavy rains and the heat, but they had to put up with it because they had nowhere else to go. She said the villagers often went hungry and had to dig up bamboo shoots to boil and eat with sticky rice and instant noodles.

Sometimes they get food from kind-hearted people or monks from Jomjaeng Temple, but all the government has given them so far are relief bags and 50 kilograms of rice.

Each family received Bt1,000 in cash from the district four days after the floods and another Bt5,000 from a private organisation, while the Nasum Tambon Administration Organisation delivers fresh water upon request.

She said the residents still regretted not being allowed to report their woes to HRH Princess Bajra Kitiyabha when she visited the area right after the flooding.

Khammul said the families had little hope of building new homes on safer ground because the district chief had told them they would have to build their own homes on land provided by the district.

She added that the villagers had little money and the provincial authority had visited them only twice.

The Nation

PHETCHABUN