Threat of disease from historic flooding looms in Thailand

Worries about high tides overwhelming parts of Thailand in recent days have morphed into fears about water- and insect-borne diseases in the flood-ravaged country.

Bangkok residents paddle a makeshift boat through floodwater on Sunday, October 30. Thai officials warned residents in the capital to be vigilant and expect disruptions with electricity and tap water as Thailand battles its worst flooding in decades.

Bangkok's central business district has avoided major flooding so far, but outlying areas are chest- or waist-deep in water.

"The water in those parts is a filthy black color containing sewage, garbage and dead animals with a nasty smell. Mosquitoes are also breeding rapidly," said Igor Prahin of Bangkok.

More than 370 people have died since the flooding began after heavy monsoon rains.

U.S. Ambassador to Thailand Kristie A. Kenney said Monday that "the worst may be over for central Bangkok," but about 2 million people are still affected by the flooding. The United States has pledged a total of $1.1 million in aid.

CNNGo: Updated travel information for tourists Charities working in the country have warned of diseases such as diarrhea, dengue fever and malaria in the coming days and weeks.

"There are places on the outskirts of Bangkok and in other parts of the country which have been flooded for nearly two weeks," said Matthew Cochrane of the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.

"The country's prime minister has said that the city has 'dodged a bullet' -- the economic impact of central Bangkok being flooded would have been huge, and thankfully that did not happen -- but a huge part of the country is still under water," Cochrane said.

Outside the city it is certainly a humanitarian crisis, because there are people who have been cut off for weeks without any aid, supplies or food."

UNICEF said it was providing 20,000 mosquito nets and handing out 20,000 pamphlets explaining how to stay safe and healthy in flood-stricken regions. The Red Cross said it had provided more than 130,000 relief kits, and 120,000 packs of bottled water, but representatives in Bangkok said they were concerned at the lack of food and drinking water in communities isolated by the floodwaters.

Supatra (Jenstitvong) Assavasuke, who lives east of central Bangkok, took in two friends whose house on the west side of the city is submerged under 1 to 2 meters (3 to 7 feet) of water. It's unclear how long they will need to stay.

She and her family have helped donate about 3,000 liters (almost 800 gallons) of drinking water to those in worse-off areas.

"Those who got affected, they lose their houses, they lose their jobs, their cars -- many things," she said.

But even those in the capital faced possible shortages of water.

The Metropolitan Waterworks Authority said it had reduced the amount of tap water processed for residents from 900,000 to 400,000 cubic meters per day, because of high algae counts at one of its plants.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said authorities would speed up the process of draining water into Bangkok's canals and into the sea, raising hopes that water levels in the city could start to sink. However, the government has warned it may take more than a month for the floods to recede.

Already, the flooding has caused an estimated $6 billion in damages, the Thai Finance Ministry has said.

The Thai government has set up more than 1,700 shelters across the country, where more than 113,000 people have taken refuge.

Yet many are trying to push through with their daily routines.

In Bangkok's Chinatown area, a food vendor up to her knees in murky water continued to serve patrons at her small cart.

One resident traveled down a street by row boat as a nearby bicyclist pedaled through thigh-deep flooding.

And a man walked his dog near Bangkok's Grand Palace, the dog chest-deep in water.

Evacuation As Floods Hit Thai Factories

Thai authorities have ordered a new evacuation of an industrial park north of the nation's capital Bangkok, as the economic impact of ongoing floods worsened.

The move at the Nava Nakorn industrial estate in Pathum Thani is a big blow for several major companies with operations there, including Casio, Seiko, Nestle and Toshiba.

The hardest-hit firms were Honda and Toyota, which use Thailand is a major production base.

Both have been forced to stop all work there due to flooding of their facilities.

The evacuation order, which was made in a live television broadcast from the Flood Relief Operation Centre, came after water burst through one of several protective walls hurriedly constructed in the past few days.

The flood centre's spokesman Wim Rungwattanajinda said 200 buses and trucks were mobilised to take evacuated workers to emergency shelters, including a huge temple complex that could house as many as 5,000.

At least four other major industrial parks have been inundated, leaving upward of 100,000 workers idle and disrupting supply chains, especially in the automotive and electronic industries.

The Labour Ministry said more than 260,000 people had lost jobs and 6,533 businesses nationwide had to close due to floods between October 10 and 12.

Thailand's Central Bank last week estimated the total cost of the floods could be 100bn baht (£2bn).

The nationwide death toll rose to 307, mostly from drowning. Outside the capital, thousands of people remain displaced and hungry residents were struggling to survive in half-submerged towns.

On Sunday, the military rescued people from the rooftops of flooded buildings in the swamped city of Ayutthaya, one of the country's hardest-hit.

At the same time, officials were expressing growing optimism that Bangkok would be spared thanks to the city's complex system of flood walls, canals, dykes and underground tunnels that help divert vast pools of runoff south into the Gulf of Thailand.

Japan offers help to firms hit by Thai floods

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan offered on Tuesday extra loans, insurance and a baht cash line to help Japanese companies in flood-ravaged Thailand, signalling growing concerns over the disaster's impact on the world's third biggest economy.

Thai officials have said it could take as long as six weeks for water to recede after the nation's worst flooding in half a century and a further 45 days for industrial parks to reopen, and the prospect of a prolonged production paralysis is raising alarm in Tokyo.

"Thailand is the centre of Japan's supply chain, especially in the ASEAN region," Economics Minister Motohisa Furukawa told reporters, referring to Southeast Asia's economic and political bloc. "We need to keep in mind the impact on Japanese firms and closely watch the impact on the Japanese economy."

The Bank of Japan said it was discussing a scheme with its Thai counterpart that would allow Thai central bank to lend baht funds using Japanese government bonds as collateral.

In addition, the trade ministry said government-owned Japan Finance Corporation would offer loans to Japanese parent companies of firms operating in Thailand, while Japan's export credit agency would reinsure insurers providing cover to Japanese firms affected by the floods.

About 1,800 Japanese manufacturers operate in Thailand and several of them, including Toyota Motor Corp, Canon Inc, Pioneer and Sony Corp, have suffered flood damage to plants or supply snags.

Canon, the world's biggest maker of digital cameras, cut its annual profit forecast below market expectations on Tuesday, citing damage to its camera parts suppliers in Thailand and a closure of an inkjet printer plant there.

On Monday, Toyota said it would trim production at its Japanese vehicle assembly factories this week due to a shortage of Thai-made parts as the floods disrupted supply.

A senior Bank of Japan official briefing reporters on the plan said so far Japanese banks and companies were not facing funding strains in Thailand but that the central bank was closely monitoring conditions there.

Thailand's central bank has said the floods could shave more than 1 percentage point off this year's economic growth. No official estimates are available for Japan, but the floods are seen denting production in the months ahead, right when it has largely recovered from a slump caused by the devastating March earthquake and tsunami.

CRITICAL TIME

"The impact is large enough to push down Japan's industrial production by 1 percentage point for the next two to three months. Once the floods recede, production will bounce back," said Hiroaki Muto, senior economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Co in Tokyo.

About 450 Japanese businesses are located in the seven flood-hit industrial parks and some others are dependent on items produced there, a trade ministry official said.

Japan's manufacturers have largely successfully restored production and supply networks damaged by the March 11 disaster, but now have to cope with faltering global growth, market jitters over Europe's debt crisis and a buoyant yen.

The yen spiked to an all-time high against the dollar of 75.78 yen last Friday, and is trading well above levels that major exporters have used in their earnings forecasts.

That has fanned concerns that the currency's strength -- largely driven by nervous investors seeking highly liquid and relatively safe assets such as Japanese government bonds -- will stunt Japan's recovery from its post-quake slump.

The BOJ is expected to trim its growth forecasts for this and next fiscal year when it meets on Thursday, but still predict a gradual moderate recovery and keep its policy on hold.

Finance Minister Jun Azumi repeated that he was ready to take firm steps -- seen as a coded reference to market intervention -- if the yen's gains become excessive.

The baht funding line would add to an array of measures the Japanese government has proposed in recent weeks to help the nation's exporters cope with the yen's impact, including subsidies for companies that plan to expand domestic production rather than move it abroad.

Thai floods batter global electronics, auto supply chains

BANGKOK/TOKYO (Reuters) - Manufacturers of car parts to computer hard drives are worst hit in Thailand and face a bleak key holiday selling season due to massive floods, which have shut down production.

Japanese car makers that had just started to recover from the March earthquake and tsunami that disrupted their supply chains are now facing shortages of key parts made in Thailand, a key manufacturing base in Southeast Asia.

Companies including Toyota Motor Co and Honda Motor Co have already curtailed production at plants as far away as North America because their Thai suppliers are under water.

Computer makers such as Lenovo Group Ltd, the world's No.2 PC maker, have also been affected. Lenovo said earlier this week it expected some constraints on hard disk drive supplies through the first quarter of next year due to the floods.

Samsung Electronics, the world's top computer memory chip maker, said on Friday that it expected Thailand's floods to dampen sales of personal computers and prices of DRAM chips used in PCs.

"We expect PC (sales) to be lower than expected. As a result, we expect weakness in DRAM prices," an executive at Samsung told an earnings conference call.

Taiwan's Acer Inc said it has already started to raise prices on future orders to cope with rising costs.

Thailand is the No. 2 maker of hard disk drives (HDD) after China and makes about half of global output taking place there, meaning damage caused by flooding could keep factories closed or hobbled for months, analysts and executives said.

Thailand has become a major manufacturing center due to government incentives, tax breaks and land acquisition deals specifically designed to lure automotive companies and high-tech manufacturers.

Complicating the situation are the tight links global companies have forged in their supply chains to minimize holding expensive inventories and which utilize "just in time" manufacturing. As seen during the March earthquake in Japan, when one link is broken, it can disrupt production on a global scale.

Flooding has forced the closure of seven industrial estates in Ayutthaya, Nonthaburi and Pathum Thani provinces bordering Bangkok, causing billions of dollars of damage and putting about 650,000 people temporarily out of work.

"Inventory in the supply chain should be able to satisfy demand until late November to early December, but if the situation does not improve, many products will not be able to be produced because hard disk production is very concentrated in Thailand and the plants in China and Malaysia are not enough to support industry demand," said Charles Lin, chief financial officer of Pegatron Corp.

The company is the main contract manufacturer for Asustek Computer Inc.

Top hard drive makers Western Digital and Seagate both have factories in Thailand. Western Digital's factories are closed and Seagate has warned it could face parts shortages even though its plants are running.

Computer makers may be affected longer than other manufacturers because their manufacturing plants require "clean room" environments to fabricate precision computer components.

Asustek's Chief Financial Officer, David Chang, said the floods were already pushing up prices for hard drives by as much as 20-40 percent.

"If the situation persists, not only notebook production will be affected, but shipments for desktops and other components will also drop," he said.

"Our inventory can last us until the end of November and our Q4 guidance to be given out next Monday will be more conservative to reflect the impact."

Industry officials said it may take as long as 45 days after the waters recede to be up and running. Car makers could however, be as affected if the supply shortages include electronic components.

A spokeswoman for Quanta Computer, the world's top contract PC maker and whose clients include Hewlett Packard Co, said its clients have not been affected much "so far."

"Usually under tight inventory environment, first-tier companies enjoy priority to get the materials because they have stronger bargaining power," said Carol Hsu.

CARS AND SANDBAGS

Toyota Motor officials in Thailand said the company had shifted ready-made parts used to produce pick-up trucks and modified pick-up trucks to its Gateway City facility in Thailand's Chachoengsao province.

The facility there is 44 meters above sea level, said Vudhigorn Suriyachantananont, senior vice president of Toyota Motor Thailand.

Wall of sandbags are protecting the plant and "tools and machinery are sealed and stored in high places," he said.

Daihatsu Motor Co said on Friday it would reduce work to produce Toyota-badged cars at two Japanese factories next week due to a shortage of parts from Thailand.

Daihatsu, the minivehicle unit of Toyota, said it expects no impact from the Thai floods on its own minicar production in Japan and in Indonesia and Malaysia at least for November.

The Japanese government announced on Friday it would allow Japanese companies operating in Thailand to bring some Thai workers to Japan to make up for lost production.

Japan's trade ministry said the Thai workers would only be allowed in for six months and would not be allowed to bring their families.

Bangkok Floods: Thais Defy Crocodile Warning

Residents of Bangkok's northern suburbs have been reluctant to leave their flood-hit homes despite the risks to their safety.

People in Luangphukhao have seen their homes inundated by floodwater over the weekend but have chosen to stay.

They have been wading to the local store to buy supplies and ferrying small children around on makeshift rafts.

One man cleared debris from around his house while seated in a floating bathtub.

The water is stagnant and murky and authorities are warning it could harbor escapees from crocodile farms that operate on Bangkok's outskirts.

"Of course I'm worried about the crocodiles," said one man as he pulled his son along on a foam mattress through waist-deep water. "What we have to do is remember to tell others if we see one."

Local resident Napaporn Chainiwat said: "I'm scared of crocodiles... so if I hear of any in this area, I'll leave."

The nearby Laksi Temple is also partially submerged but Saffron-robed Buddhist monks are floating around in small boats.

Sandbag walls protect the temple's most valuable Buddhist artifacts.

Its main hall is on higher ground and the monks have taken in 500 evacuees, including three water buffalo and several pet dogs.

Volunteers provide hot meals of rice porridge and vegetables and the Thai military has pitched in with free haircuts for flood refugees.

But life in an evacuation camp is boring and crowded, and because the flood waters may take several weeks to recede there is little prospect of going home.

The Thai government now says 80% of Bangkok may escape inundation, but that is little comfort for those who have already lost their homes.

"I'm glad that many people won't be flooded," said Nongkran Phonjanpreuk, who has been camped out in the temple for two weeks with her young granddaughter.

"But that's what the government said to me and now my home is under water."

Elsewhere, tensions erupted when angry residents scuffled with security forces as they tried to force open a floodgate to stop their homes being ruined.

The clash at the Klong Sam Wa floodgate showed the rising anger in some neighborhoods that have been sacrificed to keep Bangkok's central business district and historic heart dry.

Residents had grown increasingly agitated as the water levels climbed and asked the authorities to increase the amount of water being let through the gate.

They used hammers and pickaxes to break through a section around the floodgate to let water out and pushed and shoved security forces trying to stop them.

Authorities had warned that allowing too much water through the gate could threaten an industrial estate downstream and raise the level of a main canal leading to inner Bangkok.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said the government had agreed to open the gate wider but ordered officials to make sure it did not cause problems elsewhere.

The Thai leader says she hopes the floodwaters will be drained through Bangkok more quickly now that peak high tides have passed.

There have been complaints that the government has focused on protecting the capital and forgotten about provinces to the north, some of which have been underwater for weeks or months.

But the Prime Minister said: "The government is concerned about every individual who has experienced flooding, as well as those facing a lengthy period of floods. The government has emphasised with the provincial governors to exhaustively take care of the people."

She added that she hoped seven submerged industrial estates, which house companies including Honda and Toshiba, would be running again within around three months.

Floods hit PC hard drive production

Severe floods have halted production at the Thai factory which is one of the world's largest makers of hard drives for personal computers.

Production of hard drives has been halted by flooding in Thailand

Western Digital said production in Thailand, where it makes about 60% of its hard drives, would be "constrained" in the current quarter.

Thailand's worst floods in half a century have killed more than 280 people since late July, swamped more than two-thirds of country and inflicted billions in damage.

Western Digital produced nearly 54 million hard drives in the April-June quarter, with 60% of those made at its plant near the Thai capital Bangkok. The remainder were produced in neighbouring Malaysia.

Other technology companies including Microsemi and ON Semiconductor have reported production disruptions in Thailand because of the flooding.

Thailand floods disrupt Honda's America production

Japanese automaker Honda will slash production at its North America plants by 50 percent starting on Wednesday as suppliers in flood-ravaged Thailand are unable to deliver parts.

Cars submerged in floodswaters at a Honda car factory outside the ancient Thai capital of Ayutthaya, north of Bangkok on October 11, 2011. Honda will slash production at its North America plants by 50 percent starting on Wednesday as suppliers in flood-ravaged Thailand are unable to deliver parts.

"A number of Honda suppliers in Asia currently are unable to maintain parts production, which is disrupting the flow of parts to our production operations in North America," the company said in a statement Monday.

Most of the parts for Honda and Acura vehicles are sourced from North American suppliers, but "a few critical electronic parts" come from Thailand, it said.

Starting on Wednesday, the company will cut in half its automobile assembly at all six of its plants in Canada and the United States for at least one week.

"It is anticipated that this situation will require adjustments for the next several weeks," said Honda spokesman Ed Miller.

"Subsequent adjustments will be announced as they are determined based on the parts supply situation," he added.

The release of the 2012 Honda CR-V could potentially be delayed by several weeks, the company said.

No layoffs are planned at any of Honda's North American facilities as a result of the disruption, the company added.

The Honda Civic is one of the best-selling cars in Canada and the United States.

Honda, like other automakers, was already struggling to crawl back from the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in March and caused extensive damage to its industrial base.

Earlier on Monday, Honda said net profit for the fiscal first half plunged 77.4 percent year-on-year, as it grappled with the impact of the earthquake and a strong yen.

The automaker also held off giving an earnings forecast for the year ending March 2012 as it continued to assess the impact on its operations of Thailand's worst flooding in decades.

Toyota has also announced it will scale back production because of the Thailand flooding, including by temporarily cancelling overtime and Saturday production.

Unusually heavy monsoon rains have flooded large swathes of northern and central Thailand over the last three months, leaving at least 381 people dead and damaging millions of homes and livelihoods.

Thailand floods disrupt Honda's car production

Japanese auto maker Honda will slash production at its plants in North America as suppliers in flood-ravaged Thailand are unable to deliver parts, the company said Wednesday.

  Local residents cross the floodwater in Bangkok. Japanese auto maker Honda will slash production at its plants in North America as suppliers in flood-ravaged Thailand are unable to deliver parts.

"As the flooding in Thailand continues, a number of Honda suppliers in Asia currently are unable to maintain parts production, which is disrupting the flow of parts to our production operations in North America," Honda said in a statement.

Most of the parts for Honda and Acura vehicles are sourced from North American suppliers, but "a few critical electronic parts" come from Thailand, it explained.

Starting on Wednesday, the company will cut in half its automobile assembly at all six of its plants in Canada and the United States, for at least one week.

The launch of the 2012 Honda CR-V could also be delayed "slightly," it said.

No layoffs are planned at any of Honda's North American facilities as a result of the disruption, the company added.

The Honda Civic is one of the best-selling cars in Canada and the United States.

Honda to curtail North America output due to Thai floods

(Reuters) - Honda Motor Co Ltd <7267.T> will temporarily cut production at its six plants in the United States and Canada due to parts shortages stemming from the flooding in Thailand, the company said on Monday.

Auto production will be about 50 percent of the originally planned levels through November 10. The sale date of the 2012 Honda CR-V crossover, which was scheduled for December, may be delayed by several weeks.

Honda's North American auto plants buy the bulk of their parts from suppliers in North America, but Honda buys "a few critical electronic parts" from Thailand and other regions.

The company said "a number" of its suppliers in Asia are unable to maintain parts production due to the flooding, which is disrupting the flow of parts to North America.

Honda said there would be no layoffs as a result of the flooding. The company expects the flooding will disrupt production schedules for the next several weeks.

Thai flood frustration grows

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai authorities tried to stem growing anger among flood victims on Tuesday as water swamped new neighborhoods and the government began mapping out a plan costing billions of dollars to prevent a repeat disaster and secure investor confidence.

A Buddhist monk wades through flood waters inside a temple in Bangkok October 31

The floods began in July and have devastated large parts of the central Chao Phraya river basin, killed nearly 400 people and disrupted the lives of more than two million.

Inner Bangkok, protected by a network of dikes and sandbag walls, survived peak tides on the weekend and remains mostly dry.

But large volumes of water are sliding across the land to the north, east and west of the city, trying to reach the sea and being diverted by the city center's defenses into new suburbs as they recede in others.

In the northeastern city neighborhood of Sam Wa, angry residents demanded the opening of a sluice gate to let water out of their community. Residents jostled with police on Monday and Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra ordered that the gate be opened by a meter (three feet).

But city authorities warned that the flow through the gate could move via a major canal into large parts of the city which are now dry.

A man evacuated from a flooded area paddles a makeshift raft at a Buddhist temple

"We are opposed to it but the government has ordered the BMA to open the gate, so more water will come," said Bangkok Metropolitan Authority (BMA) spokesman Jate Sopitpongstorn.

"It could reach the Bang Chan industrial estate. We have to see the consequences," he told Reuters, adding that residents of the area had been told to be on alert.

Yingluck's government and the Bangkok authority represent opposing factions in Thailand's strife-plagued politics.

An expert from the government flood management team played down the danger to inner Bangkok of opening the sluice gate, saying the flow was relatively small compared with the amount coming in through leaks in the city's dikes.

"Inner Bangkok is not so much an issue," said academic Anon Sanitiwong Na Ayutthaya. "At least we know what to do, it's just a matter of time to fix the leaks."

The disaster has been the first big test for the government of Yingluck, the younger sister of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup.

Yingluck, a political novice, took over this year after an election that many Thais hoped would heal divisions that triggered street violence last year.

Saving central Bangkok from a ruinous flood would be an important victory. The city's 12 million people account for 41 percent of Thailand's gross domestic product.

But prolonged misery in outlying areas and heavily flooded provinces to the north would take the gloss off any victory for Yingluck, especially given a perception that those areas have been sacrificed to save the capital.

To the north of Bangkok, Pathum Thani and Ayutthaya provinces have been largely inundated for weeks, along with seven industrial estates that have sprung up over the last two decades on what used to be the central plain's rice fields.

"BE PREPARED"

People eked out a living in the flooded provinces on Tuesday with women cooking over gas stoves in the shade of plastic sheets strung up over pick-up trucks while men in their underwear cast fishing nets into water covering roads.

Cars, trucks and taxis were bumper to bumper for about 20 km (12 miles) on an elevated road out of Bangkok, parked and abandoned safely above the murky tide.

The cabinet met to work out a recovery plan that one cabinet minister said this week could cost up to $30 billion, including an overhaul of the water-management system and rehabilitation of industrial estates.

Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Kittirat Na Ranong said the government would need to borrow "hundreds of billions of baht" to recover and prevent a repeat of disaster during the annual rainy season.

"Any investor, ambassador, I talk to, they never ask how high the floodwater are but what will Thailand actually do to prevent this from happening again," Kittirat told reporters.

The government would invite experts from inside and outside the country to help draw up the plan and he would approach the Asian Development Bank to discuss financing.

"We have to be prepared for the future," Kittirat said. "Preparation and the prevention of floods and drought is something we must start to do now."

Yingluck said on Monday she had assured Japanese investors there would be no repeat of the disaster. The government expects it will take three months to get the flooded industrial estates back on their feet.

Thailand is the second-largest exporter of computer hard drives and global prices are rising because of a flood-related shortage of major components used in personal computers.

Thailand is also Southeast Asia's main auto-parts maker and Japan's Honda Motor Co said car production could be difficult in the second half of its business year ending in March. Its Ayutthaya plant has suspended work indefinitely.

The Bank of Thailand has nearly halved its projection of economic growth this year to 2.6 percent from July's 4.1 percent estimate, and said the economy -- Southeast Asia's second largest -- would shrink by 1.9 percent in the December quarter from the previous three months due to the floods.

Headline inflation rose to 4.19 percent in October from 4.03 percent the previous month as the flooding pushed up some prices but the central bank said the rises were temporary and it would focus on longer-term factors in setting policy.

The floods submerged four million acres (1.6 million ha), an area roughly the size of Kuwait, and destroyed 25 percent of the main rice crop in the world's largest rice exporter.

The deluge was caused in part by unusually heavy monsoon rain but the weather has been mostly clear for the past week. The BMA said 2,245 mm (more than seven feet) of rain had fallen this year to the end of October, 40.8 percent above average. ($1=30.75 baht)

Bangkok Officials Have to Choose Who Stays Dry in Floods

BANGKOK — In the rush to defend Bangkok from monsoon floodwater on Tuesday, Thai officials were faced with the choice of saving men or machines.

Thai men used a boat to navigate through floodwater outside a shopping mall in Bangkok's Laksi district on Tuesday.

Angry residents of a northern Bangkok neighborhood are demanding that officials open a barrier that is causing flooding in their homes but keeping a nearby industrial area dry. “We are calling for justice,” said Boonsom Jitchuen, 52, a flooded shopkeeper who took part in protests Monday along what is known as the Sam Wa canal. “All we want is a place to sleep.”

The controversy is typical of the wrenching decisions that have faced the Thai leadership over the past two months, a triage between bad and worse options. Engineers, politicians and soldiers have been forced to pick who is drenched and who stays dry as the destructive path of floodwater descend from northern Thailand and heads toward the sea. Nearly 400 people have died in the flooding.

Hundreds of factories producing everything from computer components to car parts have already been inundated, with far-flung consequences for the interconnected world of manufacturing. Apple computer says a global shortage of hard-disk drives is now inevitable and Toyota and Honda have cut back production at their factories in North America because of a shortage of parts from Thailand.

The swollen Chao Phraya river flowed through Bangkok on Sunday.

But the Bang Chan Industrial Estate, a collection of factories producing, among other things, plastics, fertilizer, furniture and electronics, has until now stayed dry.

The Bangkok governor says the sluice gates in Ms. Boonsom’s neighborhood must stay closed if the industrial park, which is on the outskirts of Bangkok, is to be saved.

Sukhumbhand Paribatra, the governor, appeared to be at odds with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who ordered authorities to partially open the barrier, a Solomonic solution that local officials fear will result in both sides being flooded. Water is already flowing through a channel that was dug by angry residents during the protest on Monday.

In what is a largely Muslim neighborhood, residents gathered after an announcement was made over the loudspeaker of the local mosque. “The water keeps rising!” went the announcement, according to Somkiat Kalamad, a 34-year-old resident. “Please join a gathering to call for the opening of the flood gate.”

The women of the community blocked a road leading to the canal and the men hacked away at a dike, Mr. Somkiat said. On Tuesday, water continued to rush through the small channel they created.

It was unclear what affect this would have on the Bang Chan industrial zone or other parts of Bangkok. Some 100 police officers now patrol the area but residents are threatening further protests. The sluice gate is about 20 miles from central Bangkok, which has largely remained dry, thanks to a wall of sandbags erected, guarded and maintained by soldiers.

But water has seeped into northern districts over the past week and many roads are impassable. The government on Tuesday established committees to coordinate the clean-up and reopening of seven large industrial parks north of the city. Many companies say they are not sure when their factories will reopen. One manufacturer, Cal-Comp Electronics, said Tuesday that it planned to resume operations at its facility in Ayutthaya, north of Bangkok, at the end of the month. The flooding there had stabilized, the company said in a statement.

Along the Sam Wa canal, residents spoke with quavering voices about the floodwater they have endured for nearly two months. “We should share the hardship,” said Arthon Leebamrung, a 32-year-old gardener whose house is filled with waist-deep water. He defended the decision to partially break the flood wall.

“We couldn’t bear it any longer,” Mr. Arthon said. “We have been telling them for weeks to open the gate, but no one listened.”

Bangkok floods: Anger grows in deluged districts

Flood water has continued to pour into outer districts of the Thai capital, Bangkok, forcing residents to evacuate.

The government says efforts to protect the center of the city from the rising water have been largely successful.

But tension has been rising in flooded suburbs, with residents demanding barriers be opened to allow water out.

In one area residents forced officials to open a sluice gate, potentially threatening an industrial estate.

Accumulated flood water caused by weeks of monsoon rain is still being drained from the central provinces through channels in and around Bangkok to the sea.

Officials are warning it will be many weeks before the situation stabilizes.

'Have to be tough'

Downtown Bangkok may have been spared, but the districts which surround the center are taking a heavy toll and resentment is growing, reports the BBC's Rachel Harvey in Bangkok.

The government appears to have bowed to pressure from angry residents in the east of the city who demanded a local sluice gate be opened to allow more water to flow out of their flooded neighborhood.

That has led to renewed tension with the Bangkok city authorities who fear the move might put the Bang Chan Industrial Estate at risk.

Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra said the needs of all residents had to be balanced.

"I love the people, as do other elected politicians, but sometimes I have to be tough with the demands of the minority for the sake of the majority," he said. "I cannot yield to every demand."

Hundreds of factories have already had to close because of the floods, putting tens of thousands of people out of work.

Supply chains have been badly disrupted, our correspondent adds. A shortage of parts has forced the Japanese car maker, Honda, to halve production at its north American operations.

As well as the economic cost of the crisis, humanitarian organizations are warning that affected communities will need regular supplies of aid for weeks to come. 

Fed-up residents force open water sluice gates

Bang Chan Industrial Estate in the eastern Bangkok suburban district is in more danger of flooding after angry protesters forced the government to open wider a sluice gate in Klong Sam Wa to allow more water to flow from their inundated commuunities.

About 500 people block Nimitmai Road in Khlong Sam Wa district to demand the Khlong Sam Wa sluice gate be opened wider, from 70cm to 1.5m. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration eventually agreed to open the sluice gate by 80cm. TAWEECHAI TAWATPAKORN

The overflow from northen runoff will threaten the industrial estate located in Min Buri district now that the gate has been opened wider.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra told reporters on Monday she had decided to order the city administration to lift the sluice gate at Klong Sam Wa wider to one metre after the protesters' actions.

About 1,000 residents living along Khlong 3 and Khlong 4 rallied at the sluice gate on Sunday night to demand authorities open the gate more, reasoning that the narrow opening had caused serious flooding in their comminities.

After a brief rally during the day, the same group of residents returned to the gate late Sunday night to remove sand bags in the flood wall at the dyke. Some used sledge hammers to try to demolish the gate. They dispersed after local officials agreed to lift the gate to 80 centimetres.

Trouble escalated again yesterday when the residents returned to the gate, blockaded a road near Hathainimit-Wat Sukjai intersection and demanded the gate be opened further to 1.45-1.5 meters.

Commuters step on to a bus in flooded
Chaeng Watthana Road opposite the
government offices complex. 

Some of the protesters formed a human chain and tried to break through block lines of riot police before Wicharn Meechainant, Pheu Thai MP for Min Buri, was called in to mediate the conflict.

The MP failed to convince the protesters to accept to the government's plea to keep the gate as it was.

Deputy Bangkok governor Thirachon Manomaipibul, said Ms Yingluck had ordered the BMA's Department of Drainage and Sewerage to widen the gate to one metre.

Bang Chan Industrial Estate, with more than 200 billion baht worth of investment, is one of the few industrial estates still unaffected by flooding.

Mr Thirachon said he had advised the government that widening the sluice gate would not only affect Bang Chan but also communities along Saen Saeb canal in Saphan Sung, Bang Kapi and Bungkum.

Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra shared Mr Thirachon's view. "Without a written order, I will not do it no matter how much the pressure," he said.

Anond Snidwongs, an academic on the water draining committee of the Flood Relief Operations Command (Froc), said the agency was concerned factories and low lying areas in Bang Kapi might be hit.

An interprovincial bus is partly 

submerged near a bus terminal 

on Boromratchonnanee Road. 

The government has tried to maintain the water level in Saen Saeb canal near Bang Chan Industrial Estate at no more than one metre above mean sea level, and up to 0.25 metres above mean sea level in the Bang Kapi area.

Froc will have to try to control the water level in those areas by regulating the water flow at Khlong 8 and Khlong 9, so that run off from Khlong Sam Wa does not affect residents along the canal, Mr Anond said.

The Democrat Party yesterday urged the government to invoke a special law to deal with locals who try to disrupt the government's water drainage efforts to protect their own communities.

A man fits a small camera atop a pole as 

a 

measure against theft around the area 

where he sells spirit 

houses in Taling 

Chan district. Many areas  

of the

 district are under water. 

Democrat spokesman Chavanond Intarakomalyasut said the party wanted to see the government take two key actions.

First, in areas that are not yet seriously flooded, the government should invoke a special law to manage conflicts between government officers trying to manage floodwater and locals who want to protect their communities from rising flood levels through intimidation.

After the government turned down the opposition's suggestion to invoke the emergency decree, it should instead invoke another law to keep residents from interrupting government flood drainage operations.

Second, in flooded areas, the government should ease the chaos that has ensued while evacuating flood victims.

For example in Bangkok's Bang Plad district, people had to struggle to get out of flooded areas themselves. No government officers were on hand to provide assistance to flood victims. Only soldiers were seen helping flood victims evacuate, said Mr Chavanond.

The government should also take earnest actions to solve the shortage of food, drinking water, public utilities, as well as the problem of inflated commodity prices.
"Right now the government has overlooked people's difficulties. They view it as something less significant than seeking a loan of more than 800-billion-baht to build up a new Thailand even though half of the country is still under water," Mr Chavanond said.

He also criticised the government for stockpiling donated goods at Don Mueang Airport and abandoning them there when floodwater flowed into the ground floor of the airport compound.

Students paddle past the flooded 

ground floor of  buildings at Kasetsart 

University in Bang Khen district yesterday. 

Meanwhile, Froc dissolved a committee overseeing flood drainage work chaired by Uthen Chartpinyo, a Pheu Thai MP, saying that the panel's work overlapped with the committee of water management in disaster areas chaired by Veera Wongsaengnak, a former deputy chief of the irrigation department.

A Froc source said the dissolution was in line with a request by executives at three industrial estates in eastern Bangkok _ Lat Krabang, Bang Chan and Suwintawong _ because the Uthane panel wanted to drain floodwater through the areas where the industrial estates are located.

Thais hope flooded factories back up in 3 months

(Reuters) - Thailand hopes industrial estates swamped in its worst floods in half a century can be up and running within three months, the prime minister said on Monday, as the danger of central Bangkok being inundated appeared finally to have passed.

Nearly 400 people have been killed in months of floods that have disrupted the lives of more than 2 million, economic growth has been set back and global supply chains for Thai-made computer and auto parts thrown into disarray.

But inner Bangkok, protected by a network of dikes and sandbag walls, appeared to have escaped the deluge with peak tides on the Chao Phraya river due to pass on Monday, water levels falling upstream and clear weather setting in.

While the centre of the capital remained dry with business mostly as usual, neighbourhoods on the wrong side of the protective ring, especially to the north and west, and provinces to the north, have been swamped by deep, fetid flows.

Anger is rising in hard-hit communities. Tension boiled over into skirmishes with police in some areas as villagers tried to pull down flood barriers keeping water high in their communities but protecting the capital.

The disaster has been the first big test for the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, a political novice who took over this year after an election that many Thais hoped would heal deep divisions.

Saving Bangkok from a ruinous flood would be an important victory. The city's 12 million people account for 41 percent of Thailand's gross domestic product.

Another economically vital region is just north of Bangkok, in particular Pathum Thani and Ayutthaya provinces, which have been largely inundated for weeks.

Seven industrial estates that have sprung up over the last two decades on what used to be the central plain's rice fields have been overcome by the vast volumes of water.

Yingluck said it should take three months to rehabilitate the estates, where some foreign investors have built production hubs.

"We expect after the water recedes the industrial estates will recover within three months if we can release the water and recover the machinery quickly," Yingluck told reporters.

A resident of Pathum Thani province said the water had fallen for the first time and was down about 5 cm (2 inches) on Monday, but was still nearly 1.5 metres (5 feet) deep.

LONG-TERM PROTECTION

Thailand is the second-largest exporter of computer hard drives and global prices are rising because of a flood-related shortage of major components used in personal computers.

Thailand is also Southeast Asia's main auto-parts maker and Japan's Honda Motor Co said car production could be difficult in the second half of its business year ending in March. Its Ayutthaya plant has suspended work indefinitely.

Yingluck said she had assured Japanese investors of steps to prevent a repeat of disaster from the annual rainy season.

"They are still confident to invest in Thailand but we have to invest in a long-term flood-protection plan," she said.

Energy Minister Pichai Naripthaphan said the government expected a recovery plan would cost up to 900 billion baht ($30 billion), including 800 billion baht for an overhaul of the water-management system and 100 billion for the rehabilitation of industrial estates.

"Every crisis has an opportunity. We are studying how to rebuild the country's economy and competitiveness. We have studied models from several countries," Pichai told Reuters. "Solving the flood crisis is the main issue."

Yingluck said that huge sum had yet to be finalised.

The president of South Korea's Samsung Electronics said at the weekend he expected the floods to hit the computer memory chip market further by hurting PC production until the first quarter of next year.

Honda said the interruption at its Thai plant was expected to disrupt car production in Indonesia, Vietnam and Pakistan, where it uses Thai parts.

TOURISTS STAY AWAY

The Bank of Thailand has nearly halved its projection of economic growth this year to 2.6 percent from July's 4.1 percent estimate, and said the economy -- Southeast Asia's second largest -- would shrink by 1.9 percent in the December quarter from the previous three months due to the floods.

Foreign tourist arrivals in the fourth quarter were expected to drop as much as 20 percent, meaning losses of up to 30 billion baht, said Kongkrit Hirankij, president of the Federation of the Thai Tourism Industry.

The floods submerged four million acres (1.6 million ha), an area roughly the size of Kuwait, and destroyed 25 percent of the main rice crop in the world's largest rice exporter.

The deluge was caused in part by unusually heavy monsoon rain falling on a low-lying region, but the weather has been largely clear for a week as the cooler dry season begins.

But the danger is far from over with the run-off still moving and swamping neighbourhoods as fears of disease grow.

People living in Thonburi, on the west bank of the Chao Phraya, have been struggling in waist-deep water for days, as have those in suburbs and provinces to the north of Bangkok.

About 30 riot police were deployed in an area of Pathum Thani to maintain order after residents destroyed a barrier.

Yingluck assured victims in a Facebook message that they would be taken care of.

As well as a big risk of diarrhoea and mosquito-borne diseases, skin infections are a major problem and in some areas,

crocodiles have escaped from flooded farms and snakes searching for dry land have slithered into homes.

Floodwalls Keep Bangkok Dry but Provinces Angry

Workers and soldiers struggled Sunday to fix a breach in the flood wall that has prevented flooding in Bangkok.

BANGKOK — Shielded by hundreds of thousands of sandbags piled shoulder high along the city’s outskirts, most of Bangkok remained dry on Sunday, allaying fears for now that the massive metropolis would be swamped by monsoon floodwaters.

But along the floodwalls, which ring the city and are patrolled by soldiers and police officers around the clock, there was a mixture of relief and resentment.

“I am just hoping this floodwall will break,” said Seksan Sonsak, 43, a factory worker. Mr. Seksan, like several million other Thais, has found himself on the wrong side of the wall.

The sandbags hastily erected to protect Bangkok have trapped a giant pocket of floodwater that extends for dozens of miles. By sparing the low-lying capital, which lies in the delta of the country’s main river system, officials sacrificed the provinces to the north.

“I understand that you want to save the majority,” said Mr. Seksan, whose house is inundated with brown water reeking of rotting fish. “But no one seems to think of us, the minority.”

Residents of the flooded Sai Mai district of Bangkok walking along a wall that protects other parts of the city from flooding.

The flooding, the worst in Thailand in at least half a century, has affected two million people and left close to 400 dead, many by drowning or electrocution.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra thanked the residents of Pathum Thani Province, north of Bangkok, last week for their “sacrifice.”

“If we let the floodwall collapse or if the sluices fail, the water will burst into Bangkok, the capital of our nation,” she said. “Foreigners will lose confidence in us and wonder why we cannot save our own capital.”

On Sunday, Ms. Yingluck said she was confident that the situation was improving because the floodwalls were mostly holding up.

Experts and government officials say favorable weather and the passing of peak tides over the weekend as the water moves out to sea may mean the worst is over for Bangkok.

“The situation is easing,” said Somsak Khaosuwan, the director of Thailand’s National Disaster Warning Center. “If the floodwalls don’t break, inner Bangkok will definitely be safe.”

Train service between Bangkok and the northern city of Chiang Mai resumed over the weekend after a month of interruption because of the floods. The main highway linking Bangkok to the north is now also passable.

But large swaths of provinces north of Bangkok are likely to remain inundated for several weeks, the government says. And bitterness is likely to persist long after the water has receded and the mud has dried.

Tensions were palpable in the Sai Mai district of Bangkok on Sunday, where the floodwall held back water more than three feet deep. One man whose house is submerged on the north side of the sandbags appeared traumatized as he walked along the dry side and yelled to residents, “Why don’t you take some of this water in your houses?”

On Friday, the police arrested a man in Sai Mai for trying to dismantle the wall. “He’s still in jail,” said a neighbor, Thonglor Piromsuk, 46. “I wouldn’t call him crazy. I just think he was very stressed out.”

Some flood barriers have been destroyed under mysterious circumstances in recent days despite the deployment of what the military says is 50,000 troops to guard and maintain them. A nighttime breach last week near Bangkok’s domestic airport, Don Muang, sent floodwater pouring onto the tarmac and inundating thousands of nearby homes and businesses. (The main international airport, Suvarnabhumi, is still operating normally.) The surge also forced the government on Saturday to move its crisis management unit, the Flood Relief Operations Center, which had been based at the airport.

Still, only 7 of Bangkok’s 50 districts were heavily flooded as of Sunday, mostly along the northern and western rim of the city.

Drinking water and other essentials like eggs and rice remain in short supply, partly because panicked residents are hoarding. Many parts of the city were quiet over the weekend after residents took the government’s advice and evacuated to areas not threatened by flooding.

Thailand hopes flooded factories will be up and running in 3 months

Thailand hopes industrial estates swamped in its worst floods in half a century can be up and running within three months, the Prime Minister said today, as the danger of central Bangkok being inundated appeared finally to have passed.

Nearly 400 people have been killed in months of floods that have disrupted the lives of more than two million, economic growth has been set back and global supply chains for Thai-made computer and auto parts thrown into disarray. But inner Bangkok, protected by a network of dikes and sandbag walls, appeared to have escaped the deluge with peak tides on the Chao Phraya river due to pass today, water levels falling upstream and clear weather setting in.

While the centre of the capital remained dry with business mostly as usual, neighbourhoods on the wrong side of the protective ring, especially to the north and west, and provinces to the north, have been swamped by deep, fetid flows. Anger is rising in hard-hit communities. Tension boiled over into skirmishes with police in some areas as villagers tried to pull down flood barriers keeping water high in their communities but protecting the capital.

The disaster has been the first big test for the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, a political novice who took over this year after an election that many Thais hoped would heal deep divisions.

Saving Bangkok from a ruinous flood would be an important victory. The city's 12 million people account for 41% of Thailand's gross domestic product. Another economically vital region is just north of Bangkok, in particular Pathum Thani and Ayutthaya provinces, which have been largely inundated for weeks.

Seven industrial estates that have sprung up over the last two decades on what used to be the central plain's rice fields have been overcome by the vast volumes of water. Yingluck said it should take three months to rehabilitate the estates, where some foreign investors have built production hubs. "We expect after the water recedes the industrial estates will recover within three months if we can release the water and recover the machinery quickly," Yingluck told reporters.

A resident of Pathum Thani province said the water had fallen for the first time and was down about 5 cm (2 inches) on Monday, but was still nearly 1.5 metres (5 feet) deep.

Long-term protection

Thailand is the second-largest exporter of computer hard drives and global prices are rising because of a flood-related shortage of major components used in personal computers.Thailand is also Southeast Asia's main auto-parts maker and Japan's Honda Motor Co said car production could be difficult in the second half of its business year ending in March. Its Ayutthaya plant has suspended work indefinitely.

Yingluck said she had assured Japanese investors of steps to prevent a repeat of disaster from the annual rainy season. "They are still confident to invest in Thailand but we have to invest in a long-term flood-protection plan," she said.

Energy Minister Pichai Naripthaphan said the government expected a recovery plan would cost up to 900 billion baht ($30 billion), including 800 billion baht for an overhaul of the water-management system and 100 billion for the rehabilitation of industrial estates.

"Every crisis has an opportunity. We are studying how to rebuild the country's economy and competitiveness. We have studied models from several countries," Pichai told Reuters. "Solving the flood crisis is the main issue."

Yingluck said that huge sum had yet to be finalised. The president of South Korea's Samsung Electronics said at the weekend he expected the floods to hit the computer memory chip market further by hurting PC production until the first quarter of next year.

Honda said the interruption at its Thai plant was expected to disrupt car production in Indonesia, Vietnam and Pakistan, where it uses Thai parts.

The danger is far from over with the run-off still moving and swamping neighborhoods as fears of disease grow.

Tourists stay away

Tourists stay away

The Bank of Thailand has nearly halved its projection of economic growth this year to 2.6% from July's 4.1% estimate, and said the economy -- Southeast Asia's second largest -- would shrink by 1.9% in the December quarter from the previous three months due to the floods.

Foreign tourist arrivals in the fourth quarter were expected to drop as much as 20%, meaning losses of up to 30 billion baht, said Kongkrit Hirankij, president of the Federation of the Thai Tourism Industry.

The floods submerged four million acres (1.6 million ha), an area roughly the size of Kuwait, and destroyed 25% of the main rice crop in the world's largest rice exporter. The deluge was caused in part by unusually heavy monsoon rain falling on a low-lying region, but the weather has been largely clear for a week as the cooler dry season begins.

But the danger is far from over with the run-off still moving and swamping neighbourhoods as fears of disease grow. People living in Thonburi, on the west bank of the Chao Phraya, have been struggling in waist-deep water for days, as have those in suburbs and provinces to the north of Bangkok.

About 30 riot police were deployed in an area of Pathum Thani to maintain order after residents destroyed a barrier. Yingluck assured victims in a Facebook message that they would be taken care of. As well as a big risk of diarrhoea and mosquito-borne diseases, skin infections are a major problem and in some areas,crocodiles have escaped from flooded farms and snakes searching for dry land have slithered into homes.

Bangkok Floods: Thais Defy Crocodile Warning

Residents of Bangkok's northern suburbs have been reluctant to leave their flood-hit homes despite the risks to their safety.

People in Luangphukhao have seen their homes inundated by floodwater over the weekend but have chosen to stay.

They have been wading to the local store to buy supplies and ferrying small children around on makeshift rafts.

One man cleared debris from around his house while seated in a floating bathtub.

The water is stagnant and murky and authorities are warning it could harbor escapees from crocodile farms that operate on Bangkok's outskirts.

"Of course I'm worried about the crocodiles," said one man as he pulled his son along on a foam mattress through waist-deep water. "What we have to do is remember to tell others if we see one."

Local resident Napaporn Chainiwat said: "I'm scared of crocodiles... so if I hear of any in this area, I'll leave."

About 500 people who have left their homes have taken shelter in a Buddhist temple

Flood evacuees sleep in a Buddhist temple

About 500 people who have left their homes have taken shelter in a Buddhist temple

The nearby Laksi Temple is also partially submerged but Saffron-robed Buddhist monks are floating around in small boats.

Sandbag walls protect the temple's most valuable Buddhist artifacts.

Its main hall is on higher ground and the monks have taken in 500 evacuees, including three water buffalo and several pet dogs.

Volunteers provide hot meals of rice porridge and vegetables and the Thai military has pitched in with free haircuts for flood refugees.

But life in an evacuation camp is boring and crowded, and because the flood waters may take several weeks to recede there is little prospect of going home.

The Thai government now says 80% of Bangkok may escape inundation, but that is little comfort for those who have already lost their homes.

"I'm glad that many people won't be flooded," said Nongkran Phonjanpreuk, who has been camped out in the temple for two weeks with her young granddaughter.

"But that's what the government said to me and now my home is under water."

Elsewhere, tensions erupted when angry residents scuffled with security forces as they tried to force open a floodgate to stop their homes being ruined.

The clash at the Klong Sam Wa floodgate showed the rising anger in some neighborhoods that have been sacrificed to keep Bangkok's central business district and historic heart dry.

Residents had grown increasingly agitated as the water levels climbed and asked the authorities to increase the amount of water being let through the gate.

They used hammers and pickaxes to break through a section around the floodgate to let water out and pushed and shoved security forces trying to stop them.

Authorities had warned that allowing too much water through the gate could threaten an industrial estate downstream and raise the level of a main canal leading to inner Bangkok.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said the government had agreed to open the gate wider but ordered officials to make sure it did not cause problems elsewhere.

The Thai leader says she hopes the floodwater will be drained through Bangkok more quickly now that peak high tides have passed.

There have been complaints that the government has focused on protecting the capital and forgotten about provinces to the north, some of which have been underwater for weeks or months.

But the Prime Minister said: "The government is concerned about every individual who has experienced flooding, as well as those facing a lengthy period of floods. The government has emphasized with the provincial governors to exhaustively take care of the people."

She added that she hoped seven submerged industrial estates, which house companies including Honda and Toshiba, would be running again within around three months.

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