Nine Singburi Schools Close During Heavy Flooding

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Nine Singburi schools close during heavy flooding

SINGBURI: -- Nine schools in the central province of Singburi have been forced to close after heavy floods hit the province.

Provincial authorities and the governor are closely monitoring the water level in the Chao Phraya dam to protect the market area and a crocodile farm which might lose some of its 'inmates' if the floodwaters rise.

Singburi governor Wichai Phraisangob said the flood had severely affected three districts -- Inburi, Phromburi and some areas in the provincial seat.

Inburi district was most affected with 30 villages in six sub-districts under the floodwaters. In response, the local authorities built a 60-centimetre sandbag dike to protect Inburi maket from the raging waters, he said.

The governor said he has closely coordinated with the Royal Irrigation Department office in Chainat which

controls the discharge of waters from the Chao Phraya dam for latest reports on the water level in the dam to ensure that the threat of more severe flooding on the local residents would ease.

Water from upriver at Nakhon Sawan that had been filling the dam was decreasing and the discharge of water would eventually be reduced.

The Singburi Education Service Area Office had ordered the closure of two more schools due to flooding after ordering seven schools to suspend classes on Wednesday.

The Singburi Red Cross led a humanitarian emergency services operation to distribute 3,450 survival bags to the flood victims in the province.

Meanwhile, a crocodile farm owner in Pak Nam Pho sub-district said he has some 200 crocodiles in the farm and had already increased the height of the embankments of the breeding ponds to prevent the floodwaters from spilling in.

However, if the water continued to rise, his farm would be affected. He was planning to move the reptiles to higher ground while smaller crocodiles are kept in steel cages covered with steel mesh to prevent them from escaping.

-- TNA 2008-11-06