PM ducks cash relief calls

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is lukewarm to calls for special compensation to be paid to people on the outskirts of Bangkok who remain flooded to protect inner city areas.

Yesterday she wouldn't be drawn on a proposal from the Flood Relief Operation Command that the government pay 500-1,000 baht daily to compensate flood victims living within the flood barriers in Pathum Thani, Nonthaburi and Nakhon Pathom provinces as well as some suburban areas of Bangkok.

"All areas are facing the same problem. I sympathies with them and I am trying to offer adequate assistance. As for rehabilitation in protracted flood areas, cabinet ministers have been assigned to help flood victims there and I am sure that the assistance through them will be adequate," Ms Yingluck said.

Asked if the government would raise compensation for each flooded family from 5,000 baht, Ms Yingluck declined to comment directly. 

She said the government had many assistance measures in the pipeline to be implemented after the flooding has disappeared.

She added that the government would have to consider the situation carefully before deciding whether it could raise financial aid to individual flood victims.

At present, the government pays 5,000 baht in immediate compensation to each family and up to 30,000 baht for each house badly damaged by floodwater.

Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Yongyuth Wichaidit said the government had approved 1.25 billion baht for 25 provinces 50 million baht each  to help flood victims including Bangkok and its outskirts .

Relief assistance would come in various forms such as food, garbage collection, and health care services, he said.

Bangkok governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra said the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is considering diverting cash from City Hall's budget to pay additional compensation to residents whose homes are close to the big bag flood barrier.

He said they have suffered from deeper floods because of the barrier which was aimed at preventing floodwater from inundating inner Bangkok.

This compensation will be provided in addition to the standard assistance currently being offered by both the government and the BMA.

Thai PM pledges flood relief as fight for Bangkok goes on

A woman uses a plastic tub to transport her children through floodwater in Bangkok November 9, 2011.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra pledged more than $4 billion on Wednesday to help Thailand recover from the worst floods in half a century, as workers slowed the flow of water threatening the commercial heart of the capital, Bangkok.

Evacuation orders have spread to a third of Bangkok's districts, mostly in the north of the densely populated city of 12 million people, since late October, as floodwater strewn with trash slowly seeps in from northern and northeastern provinces.

Yingluck, a political novice elected this year, said about 120 billion baht($3.9 billion) had been set aside for a flood recovery effort, a figure that rises to 130 billion baht ($4.2 billion) when local government funds are added.

On the streets of Bangkok, few see an end to the slow-moving disaster that began after tropical storm Nock-ten battered Southeast Asia in late July. Since then, at least 529 people have been killed, many electrocuted or drowned, in floods that have affected 63 of Thailand's 77 provinces.

Some hard-hit regions have started to recover since the end of the August-to-October monsoon season, with only 24 provinces now classified as flooded. But for low-lying Bangkok, the disaster is far from over, as the authorities struggle to keep inner-city neighborhoods and business districts dry.

"I'm concerned about more water reaching Bangkok and I just want to know when it will recede. It's rising and it should recede but when will that be?" said Bangkok resident, Nee Jiranantawat, 53.

Others said they feared they may run low on food and other supplies, especially in homes flooded in waist-high water.

Nikom Teo-au, a 56-year-old garage owner, said he was facing difficulty delivering food to his family at his home on a street under up to 1.5 meters (4.9 ft) of water in Bangkok's Din Daeng neighborhood, just 7 km (4.3 miles) from the main Silom business district where buildings are ringed with sand bags.

Yingluck, a 46-year-old former businesswoman and sister of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, said the money would ease the suffering of victims and repair damaged infrastructure.

She spoke at a special session of parliament called to debate the flooding and her management of the crisis a day after announcing she had pulled out of a weekend summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in Hawaii to concentrate on relief work.

ECONOMIC TOLL

The toll on Thailand's economy and hundreds of global manufacturers who rely on its low-cost factories keeps rising.

The central bank has slashed its economic growth forecast for this year to 2.6 percent from 4.1 percent, citing the repercussions of floods which forced seven big industrial estates to close in central provinces in October.

The economic impact will be even worse if Bangkok, which accounts for 41 percent of gross domestic product, is overrun.

Workers and soldiers are trying to hold the line at the city's Bang Sue canal, pushing water into the Chao Phraya river and stopping it from overflowing to the south. Reuters reporters in the area said they had mostly achieved this so far.

Even so, with each week, the water has slowly drawn closer to the business district and the Ratchaprasong intersection, whose swanky shopping malls and five-star hotels were closed for weeks by political protests in April-May last year.

The major north-south Ratchadaphisek and Viphavadi-Rangsit roads were flooded in the vicinity of the Bang Sue canal. A Reuters reporter said the area was under 60 cm (2 ft) of dark, foul-smelling water in places, with trash on the surface.

Chatuchak market, whose 11,000 stalls are a draw for tourists and residents alike, opened last weekend but was now submerged, with vendors' carts and tables washed away and stray dogs taking refuge on the rooftops, the reporter said.

Barefoot soldiers were ushering people from the elevated Sky train -- still working across the capital, like the MRT underground railway -- onto buses crammed with passengers.

In the east of the capital, floodwater still threatened two big industrial estates, Bang Chan with 93 factories including Nestle SA and Lat Krabang with 254 including Unilever Pcl and Honda Motor Co.

"The water level situation in Beung Kratiem on the north side of Bang Chan Industrial Estate is still a concern. Even with the water pumps there, water keeps rising," said Thanes Weerasiri, secretary-general of the Engineering Institute of Thailand.

"The water level has risen by 3 cm (1.2 inches) from yesterday," he told Reuters, adding that efforts to divert the water into a major canal nearby had been stepped up. Channel 3 television said water had got into one factory compound.

However, the situation inside the Lat Krabang Industrial Estate was still normal.

The estates are about 10 km (6 miles) north of Bangkok's main Suvarnabhumi airport, which is functioning normally inside a reinforced dike at least 3 meters (10 ft) high.

The Chao Phraya river snaking through Bangkok has another phase of high tides from Thursday to Monday and riverside communities are braced for floods, especially on the relatively dry east bank, although a navy official said the river should not reach the record high levels seen at the end of October.

Thursday sees the Loy Krathong festival, when Thais like to float offerings of food, flowers and candles on rivers and lakes, a symbolic pushing away of bad feelings and bad luck.

But Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra has canceled a big event on the fast-flowing river scheduled for Thursday and urged people not to float their offerings in flooded areas. They would add to the tonnes of rubbish lying in sodden piles in the streets, he said, and the candles were a fire hazard.

Thai PM cancels APEC summit trip

BANGKOK -- Thailand's prime minister canceled plans to attend a Pacific trade forum in Hawaii this weekend as she struggled Tuesday to cope with her country's worst flooding in half a century.

The flooding began in late July and has killed 527 people, mostly by drowning. Some provinces north of Bangkok have been inundated for more than a month, although floodwaters there have started to recede in recent days as massive pools of runoff flow south.

The water has inexorably made its way into Bangkok, causing distress among the capital's more than 9 million inhabitants and heightening criticism of government's inefficiency in countering the problem.

“Now it's time for all Thai people to help each other, so I've informed (the host) that I would not go,” Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said.

The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama, will bring together 21 leaders, including Chinese President Hu Jintao.

It would have given Yingluck an opportunity as a novice politician to gain diplomatic luster, but also could have opened her to criticism of ignoring flooding at home where her political rivals are keen to exploit any problems due to the waters.

Yingluck came to office in August after a Pheu Thai party landslide, but is widely seen as a stand-in for her brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a military coup in 2007 after being accused of corruption and abuse of power.

Yingluck had already canceled a get-acquainted trip to China last month because of the flood crisis.

Her energy minister said the flood crisis in Bangkok is likely to drag on for another month, as authorities issued another evacuation advisory in a northern neighborhood and floodwaters inched further into the city's heart.

Energy Minister Pichai Naripthaphan said, however, that floods may finally begin to subside in the capital by mid-November, according to a government statement late Monday.

Top officials and experts have given varying estimates of how much Bangkok would flood and how long the threat would loom over the city, with some claiming several weeks ago the biggest window of danger to the sprawling metropolis had already passed.

Instead, the flood threat has only intensified, straining sandbag-stacking residents as more and more neighborhoods are swamped each day. 

The seemingly unstoppable floodwaters have overwhelmed canals, seeped up through drains and poured down condominium-lined highways. The water has now begun surrounding the city's northernmost subway stops, threatening to shut them down.

Evacuations have been ordered in 12 of Bangkok's 50 districts, with residents of the northern district of Klong Sam Wa told to leave Monday. 

The evacuations, which also effect parts of several other districts, are not mandatory, and many people are staying to protect homes and businesses.

On Tuesday, Football Federation Australia said a World Cup qualifier against Thailand scheduled for next week was moved to a smaller stadium in Bangkok because the original venue is being used as a flood evacuation center.

Meanwhile, cleanups have begun in provinces to the north, including Nakorn Sawan and Ayutthaya, site of Thailand's ancient capital. The prime minister planned to visit Ayutthaya later Tuesday to witness recovery efforts.

Victims vent their anger on Thai PM

Makeshift transport residents sit on a large piece of polystyrene foam during flooding in Bangkok.

BANGKOK: Frustrated flood victims berated Thailand's Prime Minister yesterday during her visit to inundated areas of Bangkok, one-fifth of which is now under water.

Thai authorities have advised more than 1 million people to evacuate but many have chosen to stay despite risks including electrocution, disease and lack of food and drinking water, complicating relief efforts.

Yingluck Shinawatra, facing the first test of her leadership, visited victims in the Don Mueang district in northern Bangkok, where an elderly man told her: ''You're here just for fun, not really to help, so don't come back.

A woman walks with her dog, in a floating box, across floodwater in a street next to the Chao Praya river in Bangkok.

Ms Yingluck asked residents living outside the city's flood barriers not to damage levees to save their own homes.

''Destroying levees along canals doesn't reduce the floodwaters but causes water to spread,'' she said.

Bangkok officials are struggling to maintain a system of dykes, canals and sandbag barriers designed to divert a slow- moving mass of floodwater around the city centre. Floods that spread over 63 of Thailand's 77 provinces over the past three months have killed 437 people.

While the centre of the capital remains dry, some northern and western parts have been submerged in dirty water.

The authorities have issued an evacuation order for eight districts out of 50 in the capital and for certain areas in four others.

The 12 districts have a combined official population of 1.7 million people.

Worst-hit residents have complained that their homes are being sacrificed to save shopping malls, luxury hotels and the houses of the wealthy elite, triggering protests and the destruction of some dykes.