Thammasat University reopens after floods

BANGKOK, January 9 (TNA) - The Rangsit campus of Thammasat University reopened on Monday, after severe flooding late last year, as the management of the established Thai university plans a dyke to prevent future inundations. The campus reopened with final examinations of its first-semester postponed from the last quarter of 2011 due to the flooding; while most buildings, power supplies and Internet connection have been restored to serve students and personnel. Some buildings have now been used for temporary classrooms pending rehabilitations of those damaged by floods. More passenger buses have resumed their services inside the campus, where flood stains at trees, furniture and building walls remain. Most students said, however, that they believed their campus would be eventually restored to its pre-flood conditions in the near future. Thammasat University's management insisted that a good dyke to cope with, probably, future flooding has been planned and a reunion event will be organised at the Rangsit campus on January 13 to boost morale of university staffs and students. Meanwhile, appointed Senator Pornpan Boonyaratapan said at a Senate session that the amount of post-flood garbage in Bangkok has surged by 70 times to 630,000 tonnes a day, from some 8,500 tonnes normally, urging the government to increase standard garbage disposal capacities and to maintain disposal machinery well. The senator also called for the Ministry of Industry's Department of Industrial Works to test for hazardous substances at flooded factories and to check whether the hazardous substances leaked into nearby water sources and the Public Health Ministry to prevent flood-related diseases, especially among people of risk groups like children and the elderly. (TNA)