» 10/31/2011 14:16 THAILAND Emergency deepens in Thailand: drinking water rationed, cases of malaria by Weena Kowitwanij In some areas of the city the water is contaminated, over 10 thousand people have left the shelters headed south, a prison evacuated and 603 inmates serving life sentences transferred. Government plans to boost the economy and support the industry. Industry that produces hard drives also affected. For flood and electric shock victims six times higher than average.
Bangkok (AsiaNews) - In some areas of Bangkok and its environs, including the Mahasawad Station area, drinking water is contaminated, the authorities have reduced access to tanker for replenishment to two periods of the day - between 6 and 9 am and 17 to 20 the evening. At least 10,343 people have left emergency shelters set up by the government in the capital, finding shelter in other areas of the country. There are also problems in high-security prisons: 603 lifers from Bangkwang were transferred to the prison of Songkhla, southern Thailand. To date 30 of the 50 districts that make up Bangkok have been affected by the floods, but only in two cases the situation is of grave concern. Meanwhile in some provinces epidemics of malaria have begun to spread, caused by poor conditions in the flooded areas.
Over the weekend the defences erected to protect the center of Bangkok and some key areas held despite the wave of flood waters, increasing hopes that the heart of the capital could be spared from flooding, but in different areas supplies of food and basic necessities are scarce. The fear is that it will take weeks if not months, to drain water and return to normal. In addition, there have been repeated attacks by angry residents against government and public employees, committed to building and strengthening of defensive barriers. In recent days there were also gunshots fired overhead as teams were intent on shoring up protections. The Civil Protection Department dedicated to Thai floods - FROC – has demanded adequate protection to allow their workers do their work.
The government for now excludes the possibility of extending the bank holidays, but is leaving it to companies and public offices to decide on whether to return operative. The Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has advanced a plan to revitalize the industry in two phases: the first, short-term and within a year, 100 billion Bath for jobs creation, the second long-term, to regain the confidence of investors and the international market. The floods have also caused serious repercussions in the international market of information technology, particularly in the supply of hard drives worldwide. Estimates by sector companies report that 40% of "hard disks" come from Thailand, the world's second largest exporter after China.
Somsak Ngamtae, the province of Ayudhaya, reported that "the number of deaths by drowning or electric shocks from short-circuiting is six times the average." Estimates confirmed by experts in Bangkok, who explain the reasons behind the greatest disaster of the last 50 years in the country: first the morphology of the area, an alluvial plain that in some points drops to 0 to 1.5 cm below sea levels combined with rising sea levels and the presence of three rivers, the Chao Praya, Tha-Gene and Bangkok that discharge water, the difficulty in draining the land and overflow into the sea, because of construction and buildings .
Prof. Kaisri Pakdeesukcha, from the faculty of architecture and urbanism at Chulalongkorn University, invites people to "caution" because the water level can vary even within the same neighbourhood, because of the conformation of the land: "It is possible - warns the Professor - that the water in our house reach 50 cm, while the surrounding areas it may reach one meter or more. "
