Authorities dismiss concerns over Thailand's repeated flooding

BANGKOK, May 25 (TNA) - Thai Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Theera Wongsamut says that people should not be concerned over Thailand's water situation this year, as the management of water at large dams has gone well as planned. Theera assured on Thursday that there have had no water concerns this year, acknowledging that water discharges at large dams have been continuing in accordance with the government's target, and that Thailand's total reserved water now accounts for 53 per cent of overall dam capacities, a slight lower than last year's level but remains at a good level. The minister reported that Thailand's large dams now discharge 42 million cubic meters of water daily on average, about 20 million cubic meters each from Bhumibol and Sirikit Dams, enabling farmers in the central region to grow their first crop of rice earlier and harvest it before the regular time of flooding. The minister also affirmed that flood prevention projects of his ministry's Royal Irrigation Department have been on well progress as planned and will be complete on schedule; so, he believes that the projects can effectively cope with any flooding this year. In another development, the board of the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT) will soon ask the Cabinet to work out a financial channel for the construction of dykes at six flood-prone industrial estates and to check waste treatment and disposal standards at 25 industrial estates nationwide to prevent pollution in public places. Meanwhile, Science and Technology Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi vowed that he would resign if there was any repeated massive flooding in Thailand this year, as the government has invested over 300 billion baht on flood prevention measures so far.(TNA)