 |
|
A man holds a child on the roof of a submerged house as rescuers arrive in Ayutthaya province yesterday |
Nearly 200 factories, including one run by Japanese car maker Honda Motor Co Ltd , closed in the central Thai province of Ayutthaya because of flooding, which could threaten Bangkok this week, officials said yesterday.
About 261 people have died since late July in flood-related incidents, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said. Some 2.3mn people have been affected in the worst flooding to hit parts of Thailand in 50 years, mainly in the centre, north and northeast.
The Rojana estate in Ayutthaya province, run by Rojana Industrial Park Pcl , was flooded after a wall of sandbags failed to hold back water overnight.
“All 198 factories at Rojana have to be closed because the water is about 5.1m high,” Industry Minister Wannarat Channukul said.
A Honda spokeswoman said it had moved about 3,000 assembled cars from the estate to other areas. Hana Microelectronics Pcl has also had to close its plant in Ayutthaya.
On Thursday the Center for Economic and Business Forecasting, part of the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, cut its forecast for gross domestic product (GDP) growth this year to 3.6% from 4.4% because of the floods.
It put the impact of the flooding at between 1.0 and 1.3 percentage points of GDP and said its new growth forecast would have been lower but for recent strength in exports.
The commerce ministry said on Friday it had slashed its forecast for the main rice crop, which farmers are just starting to bring in, to 21mn tonnes from 25mn because of the flooding.
Thailand is the world’s biggest rice exporter. The crop damage will add to the pressure on export prices, already being forced up by the high buying price set under a government intervention scheme aimed at helping poor farmers.
Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra said in a statement the authorities were preparing an evacuation plan to move people from affected areas if floods hit the capital, much of which is just 2m above sea level.
Some riverside areas have already suffered minor flooding but the level of the Chao Phraya River could rise sharply from October 15-18 when a large amount of water will reach the area from the north, where dams are close to overflowing, at a time of high sea tides.
The government was trying to accelerate the drainage of water from the Chao Phraya into the sea before the high tide.
Other Southeast Asian countries have suffered serious flooding in recent weeks because of heavy monsoon rains combined with tropical storms.
The death toll from two strong typhoons that cut across the north of the Philippines’ main island and left behind widespread flooding had risen to 101 as of Sunday, the national disaster agency said.
At least 167 people had died in Cambodia by late last week and 15 in Vietnam.
Thailand’s worst floods in decades have prompted the country’s premier to postpone official visits to Singapore and Malaysia, a spokeswoman said yesterday, as Bangkok braces for rising waters.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra last week described the flooding, which has left more than 250 people dead and inundated huge swathes of the kingdom as a “serious crisis” and warned that the capital would not escape unscathed.
She was scheduled to fly to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore Tuesday and Wednesday respectively as part of an introductory tour of the region after coming to power in August.
“The trips are postponed due to the floods,” government spokeswoman Titima Chaisaeng said.
Huge efforts are now under way to stop the waters from reaching low-lying Bangkok, home to 12mn people, prompting pleas from some residents north of the city for sluice gates to be raised to release floodwater.
Thailand’s ancient capital Ayutthaya, about 80km northeast and upriver of the capital has seen increasingly serious flooding in recent days after being partially waterlogged for several weeks.
Authorities are evacuating some 200 patients from Ayutthaya’s hospital, according to Science and Technology minister Ploarsob Suraswadi, who signalled a new emphasis on moving people out of the path of flooding in provinces outside Bangkok.
“The plan will be focused on evacuation rather than fighting floods,” he said.
Large amounts of run-off water is expected to reach Bangkok in mid-October, while high tides will make it harder for the floods to flow out to sea. More storms are also expected.