Airport flooded

Hundreds of thousands of people have had to leave their homes in the capital

The waters have now reached the Chatuchak market, a major outdoor shopping centre and tourist attraction north of the business district.

Many of the thousands of storeholders have followed official advice and temporarily shut up shop.

"There will be no-one able to come around to sell and to buy. So, doesn't make sense to keep the market open," Tinnakorn Rujinarong, deputy director of the market, told the Reuters news agency.

But others have refused to close, saying they could not risk losing what trade there was.

"When tourists come here to find this place closed down for too long, they will not come back again. And it will take a long time to bring the market back to booming again," said one food stall trader.

The city's second airport, Don Muang, is under water but the main international airport at Suvarnabhumi and the city's transport system are still operating.

Emergency workers are continuing to distribute sandbags and attempting to divert the water through canals.

However some residents on the edges of Bangkok have accused the authorities of sacrificing their homes to save the commercial centre.

Early factory reopenings planned

All of the seven industrial estates ravaged by floods are expected to resume operations early next year, an assistant to the industry minister said on Thursday.

Suparp Khleekachai said that at a meeting officials and investors yesterday to explore ways of restoring the flood-hit industrial estates it was initially agreed that all of them would begin to pump water out of their flooded premises on Nov 10.

After the water is drained it would take about one month for them to complete the clean-up work and another three to four months to repair damaged machinery.

It was expected the factories in the seven industrial estates would gradually resume operations and production early next year, Mr Suparp said.

Mr Suparp said the government had prepared measures to help both the operators of the industrial estates and the factories with rehabilitation. It would require a large sum of money.

Measures would also be taken to prevent the industrial estates from flooding again in the long run.

As much as 1.2 billion baht would be needed to build a flood prevention systeam at Rojana Industrial Park in Ayutthaya alone, he said.

Federation of Thai Industries president Payungsak Chartsuthipol said eight working committees had been set up to plan the restoration of industries damaged by floods.

Seven of the committees were to work on the rehabilitation of the seven devastated industrial estates and the other to rehabilitate small and medium enterprises (SMEs) outside the estates.

He said the committees would coordinate with government and private agencies, including the local Provincial Electricity Authority, to help bring the industrial estates back into operation as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, a working committee for the restoration of the six flood-ravaged industrial estates in Ayutthaya province has agreed to begin draining water out of Saha Rattananakhon in one or two days.

Tawee Narissirikul, chairman of the committee, said Saha Rattananakhon and surrounding fields and communities were under three to four metres of water. The dyke around the estate is 2m below the water level.

He said the committee agreed to drain the estate and surrounding areas by diverting the water into canals and rivers.

When the water had receded to the level of the dyke, pumps would be employed to drain the industrial estate, which covers about 10,000 rai. This might take one week to complete.

"We will ask the army to provide soldiers to help," he said.

There are 46 factories employing about 10,000 workers in Saha Rattananakhon industrial estate.

The employers, mostly Japanese, have undertaken to continue to hire the workers without laying them off, Mr Tawee said.