Concerned about the regions’ heavy rains brought by tropical depression Sonca, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha instructed provincial governors in 15 at-risk provinces to mobilise available assistance for flood-affected residents and to expedite the draining of floodwater.

Several areas were under three-metre-deep floods, forcing Nakhon Ratchasima residents to climb onto their roofs while waiting for evacuation by officials and soldiers, said provincial disaster prevention and mitigation chief Suthep Reunthawil.

Temporary shelters in Nong Wang are housing hundreds of victims.

Rainfall measuring 135 millimetres also hit Kaeng Sanam Nang district flooding many villages, while a large section of the road to Ban Khok Lam in Tambon Thung Sawang in Prathai district was submerged, marooning 174 households, while fish farms in Tambon Prathai had also been damaged.

In Ubon Ratchathani’s Muang district, residents of Wang Daeng community along the Mul River are living in tents set up along a road after being flooded out of their homes. Water levels in the Mul and Mekong rivers have risen significantly in the province, slowing the run-off of floodwater.

The Mul was within 80 centimetres of topping its banks in Warin Chamrap district, threatening to inundate five riverside communities.

In the meantime, six trains on the Bangkok-Nong Khai route had to detour and were hence delayed due to landslides that have buried the track at a mountain tunnel linking Khokklee station in Nakhon Ratchasima’s Si Khiew district and Chong Samran station in Chaiyaphum’s Thepsathit district since Wednesday night.

Landslides block roads

Days of downpours in Phitsanulok’s Noen Maprang district caused one-metre-deep flash flood at Ban Nam Pad yesterday morning before the flood torrents moved on to the downstream Wang Thong district.

Ban Nam Pad School had to call off classes to remove muddy water from the school building and clean up class materials, said school director Ket Tuankrua. He said classes would resume on Monday.

Meanwhile, Lop Buri’s Lam Sonthi district was largely underwater yesterday morning following heavy rain and runoff from neighbouring Nakhon Ratchasima upstream.

By 2am the floodwater was a metre deep at the Lam Phaya Klang Animal Husbandry and Research Centre in Tambon Nong Ri and at Ban Wang Thong School in Tambon Khao Ruak. Soldiers and provincial officials boarded flat-bottom boats to reach residents struggling to cope.

On Wednesday evening, a landslide triggered by days of heavy rain blocked a main road and damaged two houses in Tambon On Nua of Chiang Mai’s Mae On district.

The road was reopened to traffic yesterday. District chief Phattaraporn Laijud said the landslide occurred at 7:16pm in Moo 9 village, destroying the house of Thao Phochan and partially damaging another owned by Sompong Wat Taya. No one was injured.

Officials had provided initial aid to affected homeowners.

The timeframe is based on the five-year Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS), which was launched in 2015. Bangkok is one of the 10 world cities participating in the initiative.

“If we can get a 50-per-cent reduction in fatalities, from 600 to 300, in the next two years, that would be tremendous progress,” Kelly Larson, Bloomberg Philanthropies director of road safety, said at a recent press conference.

BIGRS has made it a mission to reduce traffic injuries and road accidents in the Thai capital.

To ensure success, Larson said all parties concerned must identify and understand their local risk factors.

“It takes time to see the impact. Also, understanding the impact means that we have to make sure we get strong and reliable data on crashes, and fatalities and injuries,” she said. BIGRS has focused on four risks: failure to properly wear crash helmet, failure to properly wear safety belts, speeding, and drunk driving.

Surveys conducted by Johns Hopkins University found that only about half of motorcyclists and their passengers properly wore a crash helmet in Bangkok, and most cars lacked a baby seat.

In addition, a significant number of Bangkok motorists and passengers did not wear a safety belt.

The latest survey, conducted between August and October last year, put the number of people who wore safety belts in Bangkok at about 69 per cent and those who wore crash helmets with straps fastened at 51 per cent. Only 18 per cent of babies had baby seats, while 22 per cent of people were speeding, and 20 per cent were driving after drinking.

According to the survey, traffic accident risks are highest in Lat Krabang, Bang Khun Thien, Nong Chok, Prawet, Min Buri and Taling Chan.

The initiative has also waged campaigns to reduce risky behaviours and promote road safety.

The strategy to reduce street fatality also includes redesigning roads to make them safer for pedestrians. Portions of Asok, Silom, and Yaowarat roads, for example, have already been revamped.

In 2015, Bloomberg Philanthropies launched phase two of the Initiative for Global Road Safety which addresses road traffic safety with the primary goal of reducing road traffic fatalities and injuries. Phase two covers 10 cities (Accra, Addis Ababa, Bandung, Bangkok, Bogota, Fortaleza, Ho Chi Minh City, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, and Shanghai), five countries (China, India, Philippines, Tanzania, and Thailand), and three vehicle market regions (Latin America, India, and Southeast Asia).

In 2015, Thailand earned the reputation as the country with the second deadliest roads in the world, according to the Global Status Report of Road Safety by the World Health Organisation. Official statistics stated that 14,059 people were killed on Thai roads and highways in 2012, translating to a road-death rate of 36.2 people per 100,000.

However, the end of the dispute will force thousands of Bangkok residents to update their addresses and house registration records, not to mention thousands of commuters who will be confused when new road signs are erected on 59 small lanes.

At the outset of the dispute, Krissada Inthamara, a son of Pol Lt-General Toh Inthamara, had sued the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) for failing to name the lanes “Soi Inthamara”. He said his family name deserved to be commemorated because his father had played a vital role in developing land plots in the area for the police force.

However, Dr Rujira Bunnag, a grandson of Phra Sutthisan Winitchai, said the small lanes in the area should bear the name of his late grandfather.

Phra Sutthisan Winitchai had donated land plots to the police force to give access to Phaholyothin Road.

In 1960, a police committee passed a resolution that a road built to connect to Phaholyothin Road would be called Sutthisan Winitchai Road for the first 500-metre section, while the remaining part of the road would be called Inthamara.

In 2005, the BMA set up a committee to compile a list of roads in the capital and the whole stretch of the road was identified as “Sutthisan Winitchai”.

Signs with that name were then erected, prompting Krissada, a lawyer, to petition to the Central Administrative Court.

In 2012, the court threw out Krissada’s petition on the grounds that Toh was just a developer and it was enough for him to see his family name used on many small lanes.

But Krissada appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court, which earlier this month ruled in his favour and ordered the BMA to change the signs.

Bangkok Governor Pol General Aswin Kwanmuang said his city administration would comply with the court’s order.

Such a move meant the BMA would have to erect new signs on 59 small lanes along what is known today as Sutthisarn Winitchai Road, for the portion between Saphan Kwai Intersection and the Suttisarn Intersection, and another portion starting from Soi Inthamara 59.

However, not every party is satisfied with the resolution.

“If the land donor does not get the honour he should be entitled to, it will be difficult to expect people to donate their land for road construction in the future,” Rujira said.

Phu Khiao Provincial Court yesterday read the Supreme Court’s judgment on the case, which concluded that Suphap Khamlae and her missing husband Den Khamlae had encroached on forestland.

The reading of the verdict had been postponed five times since August last year.

The Supreme Court upheld a Criminal Court judgment that sentenced Den and Suphap to six months in prison, while it dismissed allegations against three other defendants.

Defence lawyer Tanomsak Rawadchai said the verdict was final so his client Suphap would have to be imprisoned, but he added that he would continue to fight to seek a reduction in her punishment.

Tanomsak said the court still considered that Den, who has been missing since April last year, was still alive and a fugitive, despite a man’s skull that many believed to belong to him having been found in March in the forest where he went missing.

“The court stated that the forensic examination on the disappearance of Den was still too weak to identify that he was dead, so there is an arrest warrant for him,” Tanomsak said.

The Central Institute of Forensic Science released the examination results of the skull showing that it belonged to a man who shared a genetic relation with the mother of Den’s sister, Khamtan Porsricha, but it failed to conclusively identify the missing activist.

The flood torrents then moved on to the downstream Wang Thong district via Khlong Chomphu.

Ban Nam Pad School had to call off classes to remove muddy water from the school building and clean up class materials, said school director Ket Tuankrua.

Ket said the school was slated to host activities on Thursday to mark Thai Language Day on July 29, and His Majesty the King’s July 28 birthday. The activities have are cancelled due to flood damage. He said classes would resume on Monday.

Asst Professor Niyada Kiatying-Angsulee, who heads the Thai Drug Watch Centre, said Thursday that the main cause of the problem is giving children unnecessary drugs.

“For example, most cases of cold are a result of a virus but children are prescribed antibiotics that kill bacteria,” she said.

According to her, another common cause of resistance is young patients who stop taking their antibiotic drugs, or fail to complete the whole dosage after symptoms disappear.

“As well, if you start with strong antibiotics, any weaker medicines won’t help later on,” she explained.

Niyada advised parents to not press doctors into prescribing antibiotics to their ill children.

“You may think that those medicines will give your children a quick recovery – but that may hurt them in the long run,” she said.

“The human immune system can recover from such symptoms without the help of antibiotics, and that’s the better and more sustainable solution,” Sirikiat Liangkobkit, the head of Thai Health Promotion Foundation’s Health Risk Control II Section, said on Thursday.

He said diarrhoea, food poisoning, and minor cuts usually did not pose serious health threats either.

“Antibiotics kill not just bad, but also good, bacteria in the body. That’s why we should avoid the use of antibiotics for non-serious health conditions,” Sirikiat said.