Communities along the lower Chao Phraya River will see water levels receding over the next 24 hours as the volume of runoff from the North falls, but the flood situation in Nakhon Phanom in the Northeast remains severe.
Officials said on Wednesday they are reducing the rate of discharge from the Chao Phraya barrage dam in Chai Nat to 800 cubic metres a second. This was possible because the flood surge coming downstream, passing through Nakhon Sawan in the upper Central Plains, was falling.
This would result in "lower water levels by between 5 and 10 centimetres" over the next 24 hours, spokesmen said. This was evidenced by the falling level of the Chao Phraya from Chai Nat's Sapphaya district downstream to Sing Buri, Ang Thong and Ayutthaya.
The Chai Nat dam had been releasing water at 820 cu m/s second for the past four days in the face of the large volume of runoff roaring downstream and threatening to flood provinces in the lower Central Plains.
However, rainfall was expected to continue in the North throughout this week, and riverside communities must closely follow the situation updates, officials said.
While parts of the central region have a brief respite, 400 households in inundated Nakhon Phanom are experiencing a hard time, having been flooded for about a month.
The level of the Songkhram River was measured on Wednesday at 14.5 metres, 1.5m above its critical point.
The river receives water from the Un River before pouring into the Mekong. Its flow has been greatly slowed, even backed up, by the high level of the rain-swollen frontier river.
Two tambons, Tha Bo Songkhram and Hat Phaeng, have been hardest hit.
Boats are being used to carry people travelling between villages. Parts of some local roads are under a metre of water.
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