PM confident no massive flooding this year

Government Spokesman Lt Gen Sansern Kaewkamnerd said the prime minister has been briefed on operations to draw rainwater upstream into 12 rice field basins in central provinces along the Chao Phraya River, to reduce water heading to Bangkok and other provinces.
Drawing water into the 12 basins provided more capacity for the Chao Phraya and its tributaries to receive more rainwater during the late part of the rainy season.
Sansern said Prayut is confident there would be no massive flooding this year because the Meteorological Department predicted that the cold ridge of high pressure mass from China would come to Thailand sooner this year, so rains would stop sooner.
Moreover, the government has released rainwater from dams and reservoirs upstream, following the first round of heavy rains and storms this year, and the waters have been drawn to flood the harvested rice fields in the 12 basins. As a result, dams, such as Bhumibol Dam and Sirikit Dam, have at least 30 per cent of their capacity available, Sansern said.