PM Urges Fast Flood Aid, Prepares South for Rains
Prime Minister Onut Chaivikul urged faster flood relief payments to over 10,000 households and ordered preparations for imminent southern rains, emphasizing inter‑agency coordination to improve drainage. He said the situation has mostly normalized but some provinces remain flooded, and relief efforts must focus on ready‑to‑eat meals when utilities are cut. Assistance should be swift and temporary, with volunteers helping to distribute aid fairly while the budget remains limited.
Prime Minister Onut Chaivikul said the meeting began early because he had to travel to Singapore for official duties and would depart Singapore the next morning while the meeting continued, possibly joining via video conference. He noted that the flood situation has improved to near‑normal levels in most areas, but some provinces still face waterlogging where drainage is impossible, leaving standing water. The Cabinet and relevant agencies have given those areas special attention, deploying command teams to maximise assistance, citing Prachinburi as an example of a heavily affected locality. He also mentioned Chachoengsao and several provinces in the metropolitan region as needing continued support.
The Prime Minister added that southern rains have already started and called on provincial governors in the South to make full preparations, ensuring stockpiles of food, drinking water, and transport routes are secured based on lessons from the previous year’s flooding in Hat Yai, when supplies ran out after just two days due to hoarding and blocked roads. He urged that relief packages focus on ready‑to‑eat meals rather than raw rice when electricity and water supplies are cut, since distributing rice under such conditions adds a burden to recipients. Once power and water are restored, rice can be provided for another two to three days after families return home.
He stressed that assistance must be swift both in delivery and withdrawal, avoiding prolonged handouts once normality returns because the budget is limited and aid must be distributed fairly to other areas. To achieve this, the DDPM and governors should cooperate with volunteers and charitable groups. Although responders are growing weary, the Prime Minister warned that weather remains unpredictable, pointing out that even Tokyo experienced forty consecutive days of rain.
