Thailand hopes industrial estates swamped in its worst floods in half a century can be up and running within three months, the prime minister said on Monday, as the danger of central Bangkok being inundated appeared finally to have passed. Nearly 400 people have been killed in months of floods that have disrupted the lives of more than 2 million, economic growth has been set back and global supply chains for Thai-made computer and auto parts thrown into disarray. But inner Bangkok, protected by a network of dikes and sandbag walls, appeared to have escaped the deluge with peak tides on the Chao Phraya river due to pass on Monday, water levels falling upstream and clear weather setting in. While the center of the capital remained dry with business mostly as usual, neighborhoods on the wrong side of the protective ring, especially to the north and west, and provinces to the north, have been swamped by deep, fetid flows.
Thailand hopes industrial estates swamped in its worst floods in half a century can be up and running within three months, the prime minister said on Monday, as the danger of central Bangkok being inundated appeared finally to have passed.
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Nearly 400 people have been killed in months of floods that have disrupted the lives of more than 2 million, economic growth has been set back and global supply chains for Thai-made computer and auto parts thrown into disarray.
But inner Bangkok, protected by a network of dikes and sandbag walls, appeared to have escaped the deluge with peak tides on the Chao Phraya river due to pass on Monday, water levels falling upstream and clear weather setting in.
While the center of the capital remained dry with business mostly as usual, neighborhoods on the wrong side of the protective ring, especially to the north and west, and provinces to the north, have been swamped by deep, fetid flows.
The government is planning to spend 900 billion baht ($30 billion) on reconstruction, flood prevention and helping industry, a government minister said.
But in the meantime, anger is rising in hard-hit communities. Tension boiled over into skirmishes with police in some areas as villagers try to pull down flood barriers keeping water high in their communities but protecting the capital.
Saving central Bangkok from disaster would be a major victory for the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, a political novice who took over this year after an election that many Thais hoped would heal deep divisions.
Bangkok's 12 million people account for 41 percent of Thailand's gross domestic product.
Photo shows an aerial view of the flooded Honda car factory in Ayutthaya province, in this photo taken by Kyodo on October 30, 2011. Credit: REUTERS/Kyodo
Article continues: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/31/us-thailand-floods-idUSTRE79K2XG20111031
