PM Anutin orders faster drainage and relief for flooded Bangkok
The prime minister orders more drainage equipment and urgent supplies for flood-hit communities, with an initial relief budget to be prepared.
- Prime Minister Anutin ordered all relevant agencies to deploy personnel and equipment, such as pumps and water-propelling machines, to speed up the drainage of floodwater.
- He instructed officials to urgently provide relief, including food, drinking water, and essential supplies, to affected residents, with priority given to vulnerable groups and severely hit areas.
- To ensure a coordinated response, a single command structure was established with the Bangkok governor serving as the lead incident commander for all operations.
- An initial budget was ordered to be prepared to provide financial relief to people for damages sustained from the flooding.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul convened a meeting of relevant agencies to accelerate the response to flooding in Bangkok and review assistance and relief for affected residents.
Ekkaphop Phianphiset, spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office, outlined the prime minister’s instructions in the Green Room of the Thai Khu Fah Building at Government House.
He said Anutin had instructed all agencies to make full use of their combined personnel and resources to speed up drainage and ease residents’ hardship as quickly as possible.
The meeting was attended by the deputy prime minister and finance minister; the Bangkok governor; Deputy Interior Minister Worasit Liangprasit; the secretary-general to the prime minister; the permanent secretaries for interior and finance; and the secretary-general of the Office of the National Water Resources.
Also present were the directors-general of the Royal Irrigation Department, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM), the Department of Provincial Administration and the Department of Public Works and Town and Country Planning, alongside representatives of other relevant agencies.
Ekkaphop said Anutin had ordered all agencies to speed up coordination of Bangkok’s flood response under a single command, with the Bangkok governor serving as the lead incident commander to ensure consistent direction in command and operations.
Draining water as quickly as possible was the most urgent task.
Priority for assistance was to be given to areas where residents were facing severe hardship, as well as densely populated communities.
Anutin described the flooding as severe, with large volumes of water requiring all agencies to provide full support with personnel and equipment.
He ordered the rapid deployment of water-propelling machines, pumps and other essential equipment to affected areas and key drainage points to improve drainage efficiency and remove floodwater from Bangkok as quickly as possible.
Anutin specifically instructed the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, the DDPM and all relevant agencies to reach people in flood-affected areas urgently, particularly those still lacking food, drinking water and essential supplies, as well as vulnerable groups and residents in areas that assistance had yet to reach.
Anutin said that going into affected areas and meeting residents in person had shown him the hardship they were facing.
He urged officials across all agencies to work with urgency and at full capacity to ensure that no area or group of people was left without assistance.
Support for residents’ daily needs had to be provided alongside urgent drainage operations while the situation remained unresolved.
The meeting also discussed the criteria and arrangements for relief for people affected by flooding, with the aim of ensuring assistance was comprehensive and appropriate to the damage sustained.
“The prime minister stressed that the most important tasks now are to bring water levels down as quickly as possible and get help to people without delay. He also ordered an initial budget to be prepared for relief for those affected. At the same time, he called on all agencies to tackle immediate problems urgently and do everything they can to provide food and drinking water and look after people’s living conditions, because in a situation like this, delivering assistance quickly and ensuring it reaches people are the government’s top priority,” Ekkaphop said.
