Bangkok Post, December 18, 2011
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has apologised for the government's "insufficient" flood relief efforts and promised to speed up help in areas that are still affected.
TIDE OF ANGER: About 200 residents of the Rattanakosin 200 Years housing estate in Pathum Thani’s Thanyaburi district block Rangsit-Pathum Thani Road to demand the removal of post-flood rubbish.
PHOTO: PONGPAT WONGYALA
In her weekly television address yesterday, Ms Yingluck also pledged to accelerate the clearing of tonnes of rubbish left after the floods and to speed up the rehabilitation work to restore normalcy before year's end.
"I know how terrible it is, and I have to apologise to all of you for insufficient care," the premier said from Chiang Mai during a two-day visit there.
Ms Yingluck said the government was trying to speed up the drainage of water from certain areas in western Bangkok, Pathum Thani, Nonthaburi and Nakhon Pathom that are still inundated.
As for the waste build-up in affected areas, Ms Yingluck said the rubbish had to be transported out of the city, which is a time-consuming task. She asked each flood-affected community to manage the rubbish on their own for now.
"The priority here is to return infrastructure such as roads to their normal states as soon as possible," she said.
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Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra said a major obstacle to the work to dispose of post-flood waste was that there had been a large volume to deal with and some communities consist of many small sois, inaccessible to large rubbish lorries.
In the Soi Annex community in Sai Mai district alone there are more than 1,000 tonnes of rubbish to dispose of, MR Sukhumbhand said.
In response to concerns raised over a possible decline in foreign investor confidence in Thailand following the floods, the premier said she was optimistic that the investors had not been discouraged.
Ms Yingluck said that investors from Japan, the US and China assured her at last month's Asean forum that they still had full confidence in Thailand and would continue their investments in the country.
Meanwhile, about 200 residents of Rattanakosin 200 Years housing estate in Pathum Thani's Thanyaburi district blocked one part of the Rangsit-Pathum Thani road at about 10am to protest the slow removal of post-flood waste.
About 3,500 families have had to live alongside stacks of rubbish since the floods receded from their community about a week and a half ago, said the protesting residents.
They demanded the Rangsit Municipality accelerate the work to move the rubbish out and clean up the estate.
Protest leader Suchat Chaimongkokphak said some workers from the municipality had asked for 700 baht per home for rubbish collection.
The protesters dispersed at about 2pm after officials from Rangsit municipality agreed to speed up the task.
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