The areas were inundated on Monday night by excess water that had been discharged from Phetch Dam in Tha Yang district, said Colonel Sirichan Ngathong, deputy Army spokesman.
Steady rain during the past week had filled up the reservoirs in the province including that of Phetch Dam, which largely controls the amount of water in the upper part of the province, forcing them to drain some water downstream.
On Monday, the department released 190 cubic metres of water from the dam before increasing the flow to 250 cubic metres yesterday, resulting in some lower parts of the province including Muang district getting inundated.
The department increased the flow of water from the dam yesterday over Monday’s release rate, resulting in some lower parts of the province including Muang district getting inundated.
Sandbags were piled up to prevent the river overflowing in some key locations including Phra Ram Rachaniwet Palace or Ban Puen Palace, he said.
Downtown, the Phetchaburi River burst its banks, sending water streaming into homes in a wider area. Some parts were submerged by as much as 50 centimetres, obstructing traffic.
Around 2,000 households have been affected. Several schools were forced to suspend classes for a few days.
Thongplew Kongchan, deputy director-general of the Irrigation Department, said the river would continue rising from discharges upstream and high tides.
The department has installed pumps to help flush the water to the sea.
It has issued warnings to agencies to watch over flood-prone riverbanks in several locations downstream especially in Muang district down to Ban Laem and reinforce them as they could.
It has warned residents to closely monitor the situation for the next few days, as there are still torrential rains upstream.
As forecast by the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department, downpours in the South will remain a concern for the next few days. It has warned residents to prepare for possible flooding.
Besides Phetchaburi, at least three districts in Prachuap Khiri Khan province have been reportedly swamped by floods.

THE GOVERNMENT’S rescue package with its “granary-pledging scheme” will not help rice farmers or substantially lift rice prices, academics have warned.
Authorities have said they would also implement additional measures to boost rice trade in the domestic and international markets.
The criticism from agricultural economics experts followed the Rice Policy Management Committee’s announcement of the subsidy in response to low paddy prices.
The government has allocated Bt55.9 billion to pay Hom Mali, or jasmine, paddy farmers up to Bt13,000 per tonne to encourage them to store paddy during the harvest season and prevent oversupply in the market.
The Faculty of Economics dean at Rangsit University, Anusorn Tamajai, said the subsidy scheme had many weaknesses, including that it would be hard to inspect, it would be vulnerable to corruption, and many farmers did not have granaries.
“This subsidy programme requires farmers to have their own granaries in order to receive government help, but many farmers do not meet this requirement. Also, farmers will have to keep their produce in their granaries, which is hard for authorities to inspect and it opens the way for corruption.”
The government’s granary-pledging scheme is intended to encourage farmers to store paddy in their own granaries for between three and six months until the prices improve, with the goal of keeping 2 million tonnes of paddy off the market.
Anusorn suggested that the government instead should apply a “rice-pledging scheme” as a short-term solution, which would guarantee that farmers earned enough income from their crops to maintain their livelihood.
“The previous rice-pledging scheme ensured an income of Bt94,579 for 345,000 poor farmers and an income of Bt405,937 for 269,000 middle-income farmers. With this income, our agricultural sector can sustainably grow and improve,” he said. The dean said that if the government decided on an alternative to rice-pledging, it should learn from past mistakes and not set prices too high, include every type and quality of rice, and strictly inspect the process to prevent corruption.
Meanwhile, former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva suggested that the government should learn from the past and implement a rice price insurance policy instead.
“I understand that the government has to come out with this policy because it is an urgent matter. I think the price insurance policy should be easier to implement, because the farmers will get a profit commensurate with their capital and the government will not have to manage the rice stocks,” Abhisit said.
He also warned that they should be cautious when implementing their policy, because we’ve had expensive lessons in the past.
To drive up the market price, the Commerce Ministry has set up 20 missions to promote rice sales in overseas markets, while also urging corporations and other private enterprises to buy rice and distribute it as gifts.
Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn said that besides subsidy measures, the government would promote the consumption of rice and conduct marketing campaigns to increase demand.
The multiple measures should prevent prices from falling too much during the harvest season, Apiradi said.
The ministry has joined hands with the Thai General Assurance Association for the association to buy 25,000 tonnes of Hom Mali rice, which will be given away to its customers as presents during New Year celebrations.
The ministry is also cooperating with community enterprises in provinces where Hom Mali rice is grown, including Ubol Ratchathani, Si Sa Ket, Buri Ram, Surin, Yasothon and Roi Et, to polish and package rice that could be sold directly to consumers. The measure, which will start on November 15 and continue until December 31, is supported by the Thai Rice Exporters Association.
The Commerce Ministry is also working with modern retailers such as the UK-based Tesco to encourage sales of Thai rice at their 6,900 outlets worldwide, Apiradi said.
Vallop Manathanya, vice president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said association members had collectively purchased 200,000 tonnes of Hom Mali rice at prices higher than the current market price of Bt18 to Bt20 per kilogram, which would be stored over the harvest season. Each member is supposed to purchase 1,000 tonnes of rice for storage.

The six provinces mentioned were Chumphon, Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Ranong, Phang Nga and Phuket. The centre urged residents in those provinces to be cautious and to monitor weather bulletins.

Bangkok Deputy Governor Pol Lt-General Amnuay Nimmano and officials from Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) received the cards from dtac’s chief executive officer Lars Norling and chief technology officer Prathet Tankuranun.
To date, dtac has been providing services and facilities to the public in the area for free, including drinking water, snacks, mobile VIP toilets as well as free emergency phone calls and mobile phone-charging stations.
The company has also installed more than 40 small cell antennas across the area. The free services will continue until December 31, 2017, the company said.

should be investigated by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), Charoonsak Chantharamai, president of the Northeastern Anti-Corruption Organisation, said yesterday.
Sonthaya has been accused of using the division’s soldiers, state equipment and oil budget to renovate the Thung Sri Muang and Huai Muang public parks in Ubon Ratchathani on behalf of a private construction company, according to the organisation’s petition to the NACC.
Using the resources for a private-sector project violated laws concerning the submission of bids to government agencies, Charoonsak said.
And renovation of Nong Bua public park in the same province was allegedly carried out by the division’s soldiers during state working hours after another unnamed military man won the work contract, Charoonsak said.
He alleged that military personnel had negotiated for the Nakhon Ubon Ratchathani Municipality Council to spend Bt273 million on public-park renovation and re-landscaping although council members were aware that such an allocation would be redundant given an existing budget for the purpose.
He said the NACC should investigate because the use of soldiers and state equipment led to concerns that this could have been an abuse of authority to favour a private-sector firm.
Charoonsak said they were seeking information to see if they could find any link between the company and Sonthaya, who had not yet been interviewed.
But the Army insisted yesterday that the project to improve Thung Sri Muang was a public activity to prevent youths gathering for destructive activities or vice. Army spokesman Colonel Winthai Suwaree said the army was not involved in any construction bidding.
Winthai said Charoonsak had the right to petition the NACC for a probe into Maj-General Sonthaya’s actions, but explained that Army units normally undertake activities to aid people in their jurisdiction.
He said the renovation of Thung Sri Muang was not done for commercial gain. It was one of the places that soldiers went to help clean up, cut branches and prevent destructive gatherings. It had nothing to do with the construction bidding system, as that would be handled by the municipality.

 The project is aimed at elevating three districts in the southern border provinces into model cities to bring changes in the southern economic structure.
The team’s secretary, former secretary-general of Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre (SBPAC) Panu Uthairat, yesterday said the team’s leader, Deputy Defence Minister General Udomdech Sitabutr, and team members would meet today with the Committee to Mobilise Policy and Strategy to Solve Problems in the Southern Border Command’s Provinces’ Front Command Office. Their goal is to solve problems in the area’s front command office at the 15th Infantry Division Command in Pattani’s Nong Chik district.
In this first full-team visit to the deep South, they were hoping to get information from the locals on how to move forward the “Triangle of Stability, Prosperity, and Sustainability” project and also introduce all the 13 “Forward Cabinet” members to the people, Panu said.
The team would affirm to the heads of state agencies that some delays in the past would no longer be problems as the government set up the team to speed things up and hopefully make things easier.
He said certain things that were once obstructed by budgetary regulations would be resolved by amendments to support the project zone development.
A week after its establishment on October 4, the team – which also served the Committee to Mobilise Policy and Strategy to Solve Problems in the Southern Border Provinces’ Front Command – listened to officials at 15 ministries and 44 related agencies in regard to the seven working plans.
Panu said the “front command Cabinet” would co-ordinate works that didn’t need to wait for the committee, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan.
He said the team had direct reach to Prawit to pass the matter onto Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha and things would materialised clearer and faster.
Panu recalled that during their meetings with officials about the seven working plans, they already noticed issues that must be specifically co-ordinated such as the justice granted to ‘misguided’ persons/suspects on security-related charges, giving them the chance to turn a new leaf and receive vocational training as per the Article 21 of the National Security Act.
He said many ministries were involved in such works and the team would set up a specific procedure to ensure smooth operations. He said there were also 8,000 national security cases that must be resolved hence the need to add more investigators and to motivate the existing ones to ensure fast and just prosecution.
Pattani Chamber of Commerce chair Sirichai Piticharoen said he would attend the meeting today to hear what the team’s roles were and how the business sector could help.