Bt1.2bn for flood-hit firms, workers
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The Cabinet has approved in principle six measures costing Bt1.2 billion to assist floodaffected businesses and workers, including career training and three months of partial salary payments.
The budget is subject to scrutiny by the Budget Bureau to ensure the measures do not duplicate existing projects and to evaluate whether they could be implemented with less spending.
A skillstraining programme is being vetted by an adhoc committee because it may be similar to one programme already approved – career training for 10,000 selfemployed people.
Among the remaining measures are occupationalsafety courses, a mentalhealth development project and a series of recreational activities to maintain good employeremployee relations to prevent flood or layoffprompted conflicts.
The Environmental Quality Promotion Department has proposed that damaged or discarded furniture made mainly of wood should be fed to boilers at biomass power plants.
The boilers use firewood and discarded wood anyway, directorgeneral Kasemsant Jinnawaso said. And using the unwanted furniture as firewood could help relieve the burden on local and city administrations while lessening the load on garbage incinerators.
He also called on households to sort rubbish to make disposal easier and to recycle materials.
The Pollution Control Department repeated its call for strict or mandatory inspection of waste or chemicals before flooddamaged factories discharge them onto public land or into waterways.
Directorgeneral Rangsan Pinthong said that while no excess chemical or toxic waste has been detected, both the Industrial Works Department and the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand, as regulators of industrial operations, need to further promote awareness of the dangers of toxic wastes and chemicals.
The Labour Protection and Welfare Department also repeated its warning to factory workers and cleaners of possible electrocution or exposure to chemical leakage and toxic waste during the mopping up and renovation of flooddamaged workplaces and facilities.
Experts are providing training on such hazards and prevention to cleaners and workers at Bangpain Industrial Estate in Ayutthaya and would do so at other sites in the near future, directorgeneral Arthit Issamo said.
In Lop Buri, previously heavily flooded, a public health campaign was carried out as part of efforts aimed at returning normalcy to the province within 45 days.
Outbreak prevention and food hygiene were the focus, while other objectives – substantial and sufficient medication for those with chronic diseases and postflood disease control – are being pursued, Public Health Minister Witthaya Buranasiri said.
In the province, 101,281 residents from 1,099 villages in all 11 districts have been affected, with 44 having died. Eight districts are returning to normal and six tambon are still submerged under an average of 1.5 metres of water.
