Industry Ministry prepares to help factories affected by floods

The permanent secretary for the Industry Ministry has ordered chief industrial officers to get prepared to speed up aid to operators of factories in provinces hit by floods.

Nattapol Rangsitpol said he had called a meeting of chief industrial officers from 76 provinces after the Office of the National Water Resources warned that 35 provinces could be hit by run-off floods from Saturday to August 30.

Nattapol said he ordered the chief industrial officers to monitor the flooding situation closely so that help could be rushed out not only to factories but to communities nearby.

The officers in charge of six areas where there have been reports of chemical leaks were ordered to monitor the situation with extra attention for fear that floods would worsen the situation in nearby communities, Nattapol added.

When floods occur, he said, the chief industrial officers would have to report the situation to the ministry and coordinate with local government agencies to speed up aid.

Nattapol said measures for aiding flooded factories and nearby communities are prepared in three groups: aid measures, compensation measures, and rehabilitation measures.

He said the measures could be summed up as:

Aid measures:

- Provincial industrial offices must monitor flood warnings to advise operators of factories in their provinces accordingly. The offices must also evaluate the flood-prevention systems of industrial estates in their provinces and make sure that water pumps are always ready to use.

The provincial industrial offices must always check that factories in their provinces are not at risk of chemical leaks, and there must be plans for evacuating workers and nearby people if an accident happens.

- When floods occur, the provincial offices must survey damages so as to provide aid instantly.

- Provincial offices of the Industry Ministry must coordinate with government and private agencies to hand out emergency supplies to workers and nearby people immediately when floods occur.

Compensation measures:

- Provincial offices of the Industry Ministry must take action to help small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) and owners of industrial-scale factories to receive debt moratoriums when floods occur.

- Owners of factories damaged by floods must receive a reduction of fees for evaluation or training, or certifications from the Thailand Automotive Institute and the ISO Standards Institute.

- Provincial offices must promptly provide advice to factory operators on how to restore their flooded venues.

- Provincial offices must provide free checking of vehicles of people in flooded communities around factories.

Rehabilitation measures:

- Provincial industrial officers must dispatch officials and engineers to help repair machinery and electrical systems of flooded factories and provide advice on restoring their factory standards.

- Provincial industrial offices must promptly provide help to sugarcane farmers to rehabilitate their flooded plantations and provide seedlings for the farmers to replant.