Flood victims get royal relief

       Officials have distributed royal relief supplies to flood victims in severely drenched Yala as the province and its neighbours begin the process of recovery.
       Their Majesties the King and Queen have asked the Thai Red Cross Society to distribute food and other necessities to 75 households in tambon Taling Chan in Yala's Bannang Sata district, where five villagers have died during heavy flooding, Yala governor Krisada Boonrat said.
       A villager was also reported dead in Raman district, officials said.
       Bannang Sata is one of eight districts in Yala where 33,297 villagers have watched their neighbourhoods flood, a spokesman from Yala's flood response unit said.
       In Yala's Muang municipality, the water level in the Pattani River has gradually subsided since Saturday night, but it is still higher than its connecting canal Bae Moh, causing overflows in nearby communities, mayor Pongsak Yingchoncharoen said.
       Once the water level is lower than in Bae Moh, he said, a floodgate in the canal could function again and would help rapidly drain water from the inundated areas.
       In Narathiwat, the rain stopped two days ago, but villages and farmland in 13 districts remain under water.
       Officials expect the floods to recede soon if there is no more rain.
       There have been 114,235 affected villagers in these districts, according to Narathiwat's office of disaster prevention and mitigation.
       More than 20,000 rai of farmland and 126 roads have been damaged by the floods, officials said.
       Rescue workers yesterday retrieved the bodies of eight villagers in Si Sakhon district who had been killed by a mudslide during the rainfall on Friday.
       The province tried to drain water from flooded areas, but its work in some areas is causing problems for villagers who have fish farms.
       More than 300 households in Narathiwat's Muang municipality who raise grouper fish, locally known as pla kao ,in Kok Kian canal and the Bang Nara River have complained the fresh water has killed their fish.
       The problem has plunged many villagers into huge debt as they could not sell fish to pay their debts, said fish raiser Kariya Jeyi.
       In Trang, floods have gradually receded in some areas, but officials are still alert to possible mudslides and flash floods if rain, brought by the northeastern monsoon, hits the South again.