PM vows quick aid for Sukhothai
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The floods in Sukhothai should subside in two days and remedial action will be reaching those affected very soon, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said yesterday.
She was speaking during a working trip to the flooded province yesterday. Yingluck and her team waded through knee-high brownish water in the heart of the provincial capital to hand out food and other relief items.
The prime minister said she was confident that the situation would soon return to normal after relevant officials were successful in blocking water from the Yom River from seeping through the barriers. It is because of this leakage that Sukhothai was flooded, even though the river did not overflow.
“I have been monitoring the situation closely and have been constantly giving instructions to facilitate the work,” she said.
Yingluck also thanked officials for their hard work, saying that it was because of them that things had started returning to normal in three days. She also thanked residents for their understanding and cooperation.
Regional Irrigation Office 4 director Arjit Suwanichwong, meanwhile, said pumps would be used to drain flood water out of the inundated areas fast. He said repairing the embankments was just a temporary fix and relevant authorities should come up with a permanent solution.
Meanwhile, Ranong disaster-prevention-and-mitigation chief Chawalit Nitarawat warned tourists against trekking or stepping into waterfall pools.
“There are risks of landslides and flash floods,” he said.
Chawalit explained that the soil around waterfalls was saturated due to continued downpours, adding that people living at the foot of mountains and hills in Muang Ranong, La-un, Suk Samran and Kapoe districts should be alert, too.
