Thailand's flood ways to be completed within Yingluck government

BANGKOK, December 28 (TNA) - Thai Science and Technology Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi has affirmed that the development of flood ways in both the western and eastern sides of the country's main Chao Phraya River will be complete within the incumbent government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Plodprasop told reporters that the government’s strategic committee on water resources management met on December 26 and assigned him and natural disaster expert Smith Dhamsaroj to improve natural disaster warning systems; so, after the New Year festival, he will meet representatives of the Meteorological Department, the Irrigation Department, the Water Resources Department, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, and the National Disaster Warning Centre to discuss the improvement and he expects the task can be completed before flooding next year, which should start approximately in May. The minister said that the country's disaster warning systems will cover rising sea levels and high waves because of melting ice at the North Pole, acknowledging that people living along Thailand's southern coastlines have begun facing the problems and will need dykes or seawalls to protect themselves and properties in the future. (TNA)