Residents braced for dam overflow
BANGKOK: Businesses in Thailand’s south-western Petchaburi province blocked doors with sandbags and bricks against possible flooding yesterday as heavy rains threatened to cause a dam to overflow.
Rain storms are forecast through the coming days, and the head of Thailand’s military government warned that evacuation plans might need to be put in place.
“Many areas might need to have an evacuation plan in place,” Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said as he prepared to visit the province, about 168km south-west of Bangkok, today. “Any homes downstream (from Kaeng Krachan Dam) must be prepared to evacuate to higher ground,” he added.
Thailand suffered its worst floods in half a century in 2011. The floods killed more than 900 people, crippled industry and dented economic growth.
Officials in Petchaburi said they were confident that water levels at the Kaeng Krachan Dam, and any water run-off, could be managed.
“Four districts could be affected .... The governor and local administration are preparing sandbags and water pumps,” Interior Minister Anupong Paochinda said in Bangkok yesterday.
Television news channels showed residents in Petchaburi laying sandbags and bricks in front of the doorways to shops and banks, and authorities intended to issue warnings to tourists visiting resorts on the Gulf of Thailand’s coast.
“Operators and resort owners are aware of the situation. We will send an alert to tourists,” Tourism Minister Weerasak Kowsurat said.
The current rainy season has already caused havoc in neighbouring Cambodia and Laos.
In Laos, 31 people have been confirmed dead and 130 are missing after a part of a dam under construction for a hydroelectric project in the southern province of Attapeu collapsed last month.
The company building the dam has said heavy rain and flooding caused the collapse.
Cambodia’s national disaster management centre said flooding caused by rising water levels in the Mekong River had killed eight people and 5 000 families had been evacuated from across five provinces.