It's all about straining in Bangkok; eight industrial sites threatened

The fifty district offices in Bangkok have to prepare for evacuations because the flood wall 15 km north of the capital, made up of 200.000 sandbags, cannot hold back the water if it continues to rise.

This instruction was given by Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra after he inspected the 5 km long and 1,5 m high embankment.

'If the water keeps rising, I am not sure if it can prevent flooding. If not, we cannot save Don Mueang. All zones in Bangkok stand an equal chance of being flooded because we can't predict the water flow.'

The news point by point:

• Across the country, 930 factories in 27 provinces have been affected by the water. Most damage was done in the provinces of Ayutthaya, Lop Buri and Nakhon Sawan. The damage is estimated at 26 billion baht, excluding Rojana Industrial Park (Ayutthaya).
• Eight billion cubic meters of water from Nakhon Sawan will reach Ayutthaya province on Friday and Bangkok soon after.
• The air force is using five helicopters to search for people trapped in Ayutthaya province. They use infrared to detect residents in homes. When people are found, boats pick them up.
• Police from provinces not affected are being deployed to Ayutthaya to assist in combating looting. Thieves cruise the area looking for abandoned homes and take anything they can carry. On the night of October 10, three houses in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya district were looted. Police have their hands full evacuating residents and providing emergency kits and the area is too large for effective surveillance, a police official said.
• The three flood walls on the north side of Bangkok are expected to be finished today (Thursday). They have to divert the water on the east and west sides of the city. Areas outside the protected area will be flooded, but the water will also drain quickly.
• The ferry service on the Saen Saep canal has been discontinued because the water level is too high. The temporary interruption is necessary to enable the municipality to drain water from the canal. It is feared that the canal will flood if it rains in the coming days.
• Electricity will be cut off in various parts of Bangkok this weekend from 8am to late afternoon for maintenance work.
• The Irrigation Department has been ordered by the government to drain water faster from the west and east sides of Bangkok and to open XNUMX weirs along the Tha Chin and Chao Praya rivers to speed up the discharge of water to the sea.
• Eight industrial estates are at risk of being flooded, warns the Minister of Industry. On Wednesday morning, the dike around Hi-Tech Industrial Estate (Ayutthaya) leaked, but soldiers and workers managed to prevent further misery. The water is 4,9 meters high, 50 cm below the top of the dike. The Industrial Estate Authority or Thailand (IEAT) has asked factories on the ground to cease production, evacuate workers and move machinery and raw materials to safety. The 143 factories stopped their production on Wednesday morning.
• Factoryland Industrial Park can handle another 70 cm of water. The risk of flooding is now less because the outflow of water from the Pasak reservoir has been reduced, so that less water flows to Ayutthaya. The site houses 99 small and medium-sized companies in the field of electronics, plastics and metal.
• The Lad Krabang Industrial Estate can handle another 56 cm. The factories have not yet been advised to cease production.
• Pang Pa-in can handle another 1,3 meters of water. There are plans to use excavators. The IEAT has called on companies to cease production, but some are continuing nonetheless. [Pang Pa-in is not in the overview or is Bang Pa-in meant?]
• Nakhon Sawan province, which flooded on Monday after a dike broke, has been declared a disaster area. The town hall of the capital Nakhon Sawan and the Sawan Pracharak hospital are under water. Patients are transferred to the Chiraprawat Camp hospital outside the inner city. In the inner city, the commercial center is under water; the electricity is cut off. The water is on average between 1 and 1,5 meters and is not expected to drain away quickly. The flooded area is gradually expanding.
• Residents living in areas not yet flooded have been advised to move their belongings to a higher floor, park their cars on higher ground and prepare for evacuation. Military trucks and other vehicles are kept in readiness. Schools, stadiums and temple act as emergency shelters. They can accommodate 20.000 people.
• The damaged Bang Chomsri weir in Sing Buri province has been repaired. The weir was damaged over a distance of 84 meters, causing the water to reach a height of more than 2 meters in some parts of the In Buri district. The repair causes the water level to begin to drop.
• Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung has asked his college of justice to select prisoners skilled in construction, mechanical engineering or electronics to help with recovery efforts once the water has receded. They must have behaved in an exemplary manner in prison to qualify for this, he thinks.
• Tropical storm Banyan is leaving Thailand on its own. The storm is expected to reach the mainland via China's Hainan Island or Vietnam's Hanoi on Monday. Then the storm moves north. The storm killed five people in the Philippines.
• The Ministry of Commerce has been instructed by Prime Minister Yingluck to deal with the price increase of consumer products during the floods. The price of sand has risen from 300 to 450 to 500 baht, but this is because suppliers in Ayutthaya and Ang Thong are unable to deliver. The prices of pork, chicken and eggs have not yet risen. The message does not state which products are involved.
• Health officials are keeping a close eye on hygiene in the evacuation centers to prevent outbreaks of conjunctivitis, diarrhoea, dengue fever, influenza and leptospirosis (swamp fever). The shelters in Ayutthaya are in urgent need of mobile toilets. Elsewhere in the newspaper there is also a warning about athlete's foot, pneumonia as a complication of influenza and cholera.
• The police are looking for the man who impersonated a member of the royal family. He asked for donations for the victims of the flood through his Tweeter account. The man's Twitter account has been closed and his bank account has been blocked. So far, the man had received 1.280 baht. His arrest is expected soon.