Officials expect a two-day struggle to prevent water from the Phong River rushing through a collapsed section of embankment and flooding economic areas in downtown Khon Kaen.
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Battle to prevent Khon Kaen economic zones from flooding
Jakkrapan Nathanri and Waedao Harai
Officials expect a two-day struggle to prevent water from the Phong River rushing through a collapsed section of embankment and flooding economic areas in downtown Khon Kaen.
They are using gabion boxes packed with rocks to seal a 30-metre breach of the province's flood wall in Ban Khuipho in tambon Bueng. According to the Royal Irrigation Department, the work is hampered by the strong river current.
Even after working day-and-night, by Monday morning they had managed to fill in only 10 metres of the breach in the embankment that collapsed on Saturday afternoon.
Deputy Royal Irrigation Department chief Thongpleo Thongchan said officials must completely seal the breach in the embankment and stop the overflow because "it is an important spot to prevent flooding in Khon Kaen's inner city".
The department is also pumping water from nearby farmland inundated by the overflow.
"We have to do these two jobs simultaneously to relieve the impact," Mr Thongploe said on Monday.
Water levels in the Phong River have been rising for weeks, ever since officials released a huge amount of water from the dangerously over-full Ubolratana dam. The discharge impacted provinces located downstream, including Khon Kaen and Kalasin.
Elsewhere, flooding is feared in many areas in the South, which was hit by torrential rain over the weekend.
All 13 districts in the southernmost province of Narathiwat have been soaked with overnight rain since Oct 28. Stronger winds have also kept fishermen in Tak Bai and Muang districts ashore.
In the latest warning issued by the Meteorological Department, southerners should brace for more rainfall while temperatures in upper Thailand are falling due to the influence of high pressure from China.
Bangkokians will see temperatures drop between one and three degrees Celsius early this week.
