Officials and labourers in Mueang district of Sukhothai province have been working frantically to close two gaping holes in an earth embankment, which collapsed under the pressure of strong currents in the Yom River, as runoffs from upstream Phrae flow through the province.
Overflows from river gushed into Nai Muang sub-district in Sawankhalok district through the 20-metre holes in the embankment yesterday. About 130 households are flooded.
Emergency workers rushed to the area to evacuate bed-ridden patients from their houses and to help move their belongings to high ground.
Water is also leaking through other parts of the earthen embankment, which is weakening and may soon collapse, said a local official, adding that repairing the embankment, for the time being, is too risky for both the men and machinery.
A village headman in Nai Muang sub-district said the level of the water in the Yom River is approaching that of 2011, when Sukhothai was hit by heavy flooding.
Governor Suchart Teekhasuk has instructed all authorities to monitor the rising water level closely.
Meanwhile, the Royal Irrigation Department plans to gradually increase the amount of water being discharged through the Chao Phraya dam in Chainat province, from the current rate of 649 cubic metres/second to 700-900 cubic metres/second, in line with the amount of water in upstream areas and rainfall.
The department also warned people living downstream of the dam, in areas not protected by floodwall, to prepare for possible flooding, as the water level is expected to rise by between 40 and 80cm.
The Department of Public Disaster Prevention and Mitigation reported today that 22 people have died in recent days and over 21,000 households in 37 districts of Chiang Rai, Phayao, Nan, Phrae, Phetchabun and Nakhon Si Thammarat are flooded.
Meanwhile, the Thai National Water Resources Office has sent an urgent note to the Mekong River Commission Secretariat seeking coordination with China and Laos by slowing and managing the discharge of excess water from the Mekong River through their dams in the two countries.
