Evacuation: Flood enters Nava Nakorn industrial zone

Bangkok Post

Workers and other people living in Nava Nakorn Industrial Park were ordered to evacuate immediately on Monday, and all operations to shut down, after efforts to prevent the floodwater pouring into the important factory centre failed.

Photos by Weerawong Wongpreedee

Nava Nakorn Plc managing director Nipit Arunvongse na Ayudhya announced that floodwater was flowing into the industrial estate in Pathum Thani's Khlong Luang district through an opening between five and eight metres wide in a north dyke.

The water was being directed into a waste treatment pond, Mr Nipit said.

The government's Flood Relief Operations Centre (FROC) ordered all factories in Nava Nakorn to stop all machinery and that all workers should go immediately to four evacuation centres.

They were told the evacuation centre at Thammasat University's Rangsit campus could take up to 3,000 people and the one at Wat Dhammakaya could hold 5,000.

The third centre in Pathum Thani's Thanyaburi district could take up to 20,000 people. The fourth is the government offices complex at Chaeng Wattana, which could accommodate about 1,000 people.

Two hundred buses of the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority and military vehicles were waiting in front of the site to take the workers to those evacuation centres, the announcement said.

The factory managements, workers and government officials were told they must strictly follow the instructions given by the FROC. The prime concern was the people's safety, the announcement said. It was  broadcast live on television this afternoon.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said she felt sorry for flood-hit Nava Nakorn.

"I feel so sorry that water has entered Nava Nakorn because we've been trying to prevent the industrial estate from flooding for quite a while," said Ms Yingluck.

She said the breach in the dyke wall was the result of a combination of factors - with the heavy rain over the weekend and high tide levels adding to the pressure from water runoff surging down river from northern provinces.

Most of the companies in the Nava Nakorn estate are Japanese owned.
Japan's economic minister Masato Otaka said his country was not angry but sad that flood prevention efforts in Nava Nakorn failed.

Mr Otaka was speaking at the Japanese embassy in Bangkok.

"It is certainly sad that the Nava Nakorn could not prevent the floods. Of course, we are also sad for the Thai people who have been suffering from months of floods, but the industrial estates are a very important sector as they support livelihoods of several hundred thousand families," Mr Otaka said in an interview with the Bangkok Post.

Of the 190 companies at Nava Nakorn, 104 were Japanese firms.
"They are doing their best to minimise the damage each day but we cannot even estimate how much their losses are so far. Or even the overall impact to the Japanese private sector, as it's still in the middle of the crisis. It is not yet over," the Japanese minister said.
“We are not angry that the Thai government could not prevent the flood, we are just sad that we could not prevent the industrial estates from being severely affected."