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Thai prime minister says all flooded areas to be dry by year's end
Dec 10, 2011, 9:39 GMT
Bangkok - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said Saturday she expects all remaining flooded areas in Bangkok and surrounding provinces to be dry by the end of the year.
In a national radio broadcast, Yingluck said the floods, the kingdom's worst in more than half a century, were finally abating in all but 200 communities in low-lying areas of Bangkok, Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani and Nakhon Pathom provinces.
Government agencies would rapidly drain flood waters from those areas and they would be dry by the end of this month, giving a new year's gift to residents, she said.
The eastern Bangkok districts of Rangsit and Lam Lukka, where flooding in the city has been most severe, would be dry by the third week of December, she added.
Yingluck said she would hold a special meeting on Monday with her cabinet and provincial governors to discuss plans to rehabilitate flood-hit communities.
The Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department on Saturday updated its casualty figures for the disaster, saying a total of 689 people were confirmed killed since July 25 and three people were missing.
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