Ministries to conduct daily test of water

Industry Minister Wannarat Charnnukul yesterday insisted his ministry’s plan to rehabilitate the flood-affected industrial estates would go ahead as planned, even though the committee must check the water quality every day.
Some estates such as Factory Land and Rojana Industrial Park in Ayutthaya province have already started releasing water to the outside, so their rehabilitation can commence this month, he said.
Wannarat said the standard the committee would use to measure the quality of flood water released from the inundated estates was the standard for water suitable for agriculture.
If the panel cannot find toxins or any water that is below that standard, it will allow the estates to continue draining out the water.
The standard for water measurement can be divided into five steps: the cleanest, that is, for natural water resources; water for agriculture; water for fishery; water for industrial activities; and water for transport.
The committee has checked the water in all inundated industrial estates and to date has found nothing that could harm people or the environment, he added.
The minister said that if either toxins were found or the quality of water were below standard, the estates would stop releasing water so that treatment such as the introduction of EM (Effective Micro-organism) balls can be put into the water, after which the quality would be checked again.
The water level in Factory Land has being lowered by drainage, with about 80 per cent of the area now dry.
Seventy manufacturers are re-entering their plants and starting rehabilitation of affected buildings and machinery, while 12 companies have already resumed production.
The Rojana Industrial Park operator has released flood water in its Phase 3 since November 8, and in Phases 1 and 2 since last Thursday. The water has receded by 10 centimetres to about 1.5 metres.
The industrial estates of Bang Pa-in, Hi-Tech, Nava Nakorn, Saha Rattana Nakorn and Bangkadi are waiting for the water outside the area to recede so that they can start drainage operations.
Bang Pa-in Industrial Estate expects to start cleaning activity on Thursday, and some manufacturers hope to resume production on November 25.
Wannarat said he was not unduly concerned about Bangchan Industrial Estate, as the ministry had now found five water pumps in addition to the existing 60 units.
The estate now has the capacity to release 1.4 million cubic metres of water per day, against the previous 1.2 million.