New highways, towns planned to combat Thailand's floods

The Bangkok Post: A new river, new highways, new railways and new towns are among the government's long-term flood prevention measures, Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong said. He explained the plan to multinational business leaders who expressed concerns that any repeat of the heavy flooding in Thailand will cause huge damage again.

He said leaders and executives from multinational firms, including Google, Microsoft, AT&T, Cagill, Boeing and GE, expressed concerns over Thailand's worst flooding for half a century at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) CEO forum in Hawaii. They asked Thai delegates whether heavy floods will happen again in the near future.

This year's floods submerged seven industrial estates in Ayutthaya and Pathum Thani and still pose a threat to two industrial estates in Bangkok _ Bangchan and Lat Krabang.

Mr Kittiratt, who attended the Apec meeting on behalf of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, said he told the business leaders the government would improve the water management system and would not allow such a disaster to occur on such a scale again.

The government has planned investment in water resource management, to prevent heavy floods, particularly in densely populated communities and business districts. Initially, the development would include digging a new river to act as a floodway leading from the Central Plains to the sea....

On October 31, an evacuee clutches a stuffed animal after arriving at the Thon Buri bridge Sunday evening. VOA photo