Flooding Crisis Eases, FROC Cuts Staff

BANGKOK, December 6 (TNA) - Thailand's flooding crisis has eased, prompting the government's Floods Relief Operations Command (FROC) to have scaled down its staff and volunteers. Thai Justice Minister Police General Pracha Promnog, in his capacity as the FROC's director, said that the remaining FROC's staff and volunteers will focus on assisting people in remaining flooded areas in Greater Bangkok. Bangkok Governor M.R. Sukhumbhand Paribatra, meanwhile, confirmed that the flooding situation in most inundated areas in the Thai capital has been returning to normal and most affected people can now return home. M.R. Sukhumbhand acknowledged that flooding has remained in only some lower lying zones in the capital's western and eastern sides, namely the Setthakit Housing Estate in Bang Kae District and nearby areas along the Thawi Watthana and Maha Sawat Canals, where floodwater has remained about 40 centimetres deep and drainage to the Tha Chin River and the sea needs to wait for water levels of the two main western canals to subside. The governor noted that floodwater has also remained deep at the Annex community in the city's eastern Sai Mai District, but flooding in nearby Khlong 2 area, neighbouring Pathum Thani Province, has been receding. The Bangkok governor assessed that the remaining flooded communities in the city should be dried out by the end of this month, in time for people in all groups of the country to celebrate the New Year Festival. (TNA)