Residents in the tourist town of  Phetchaburi have built their own floodwalls with concrete blocks to brace for water overflow from Phetchaburi river that is expected to hit wide areas this afternoon.

One of the residents in the municipal area, Mr Luesak Rodchusaeng,  told Thai PBS that he had keep abreast with the water conditions from different sources and had placed sand bags in front of his grocery store. The measure, he said, worked in blocking out water during previous flooding.

But this time around, he had doubts if the sandbag floodwall would withstand the flood water and decided to strengthen it with concrete blocks and intended to keep it as a permanent feature.

Low-lying areas on both sides of the river have now been flooded as officials concerned earlier warned that the flooding might last several weeks due to excessive water in Kaeng Krachan dam, forcing the dam to drain more water out through the spillway.

The dam was reported to contain water 109.44 percent of its full capacity or 777 million cubic metres as of Tuesday.