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Published on October 27, 2007

Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry will propose to next week's Cabinet meeting guidelines to assist residents in 32 flood-hit provinces this year and spending of Bt2.19 billion to help farmers in 63 provinces hit by flooding last and this year.

Chumphon Irrigation Office chief Thaweesak Thanadec-hopol said His Majesty's Personal Affairs Division had insisted that the office keep flooding impact on residents to a minimum by inspecting, maintaining and repairing Monkey Cheek areas and flood gates on regular basis.

Monkey Cheeks are the brainchild of His Majesty. They are depressions to hold excess water diverted from waterways.

Thaweesak said mountain run-offs hit Sawi, Lang Suan and Phato districts hard because the slopes were steep. When downpours are heavy, the water runs fast, so short-term solutions are hard to implement. Only permanent preventive measures are effective.

The office plans to propose a big project to prevent flooding, including new catchment basins in Phato, Lang Suan and Thung Tako districts, a water-draining seven-kilometre-long canal and a reservoir in Tha Sae.

The Chumphon Disaster Prevention Office reported that the recent flooding has affected 40,316 people in 442 villages of eight districts - all of which had been declared disaster zones.

Tha Sae district was the hardest hit with 116 villages affected, followed by Sawi's 104 villages and Lang Suan's 60 villages. Two people have died in floods since last Saturday - a 36-year-old fisherman and a 12-year-old boy. The province gave their families Bt10,000 each in initial assistance along with relief kits.

Deputy Interior Minister Banyat Jansena inspected flood damage in Lang Suan district and gave 445 relief kits to flood victims. He was informed that the situation had improved and that so far the flood damage in four districts of Sawi, Lang Suan, Thung Tako and Muang Chumphon was estimated at Bt54 million.

Lt-Colonel Kamol Pracha-upmor, deputy secretary-general of the Rajaprajanugroh Foundation under Royal Patronage, provided relief kits to 1,000 residents in Sawi's Tambon Na. Kamol was also scheduled to hand out relief bags to 1,000 flood victims in Thung Tako this morning.

In Bangkok, a government source said the Interior Ministry's new guidelines to assist residents in 32 flood-hit provinces would compensate owners according to the actual damage to their homes rather than the previous regulation's rate of up to Bt30,000 for a totally destroyed home and Bt20,000 for a partially destroyed home.

The guidelines also provide Bt2.19 billion through the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives to assist farmers in 63 provinces that were hit by flooding last year and this year.

The Nation

CHUMPHON