Authorities in Narathiwat, Pattani, Yala and Songhla provinces are gathering donations and volunteers to help rehabilitate the badly flood-damaged neighbouring state of Kelantan in Malaysia.
Fourth Army commander Prakan Cholayuth told a press conference at the Sirindhorn camp in Pattani on Tuesday that collections had started at provincial halls of the four southern border provinces as ordered by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. The flooding in Malaysia's Kelantan State late last year was the most severe in five decades.
Adjacent Thai provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala were also flooded around the same time but life there has returned to normal and rehabilitation is underway. The floods in Kelantan had yet to completely disappear and people in the southern Thai provinces were lending a helping neighbourly hand, Lt Gen Prakan said.
Victims there were seriously in need of things like drinking water and dried foods, as well as clean-up help, health services, rebuilding and road repairs, and with repairs to electrical and electronic goods and motorcycles, Lt Gen Prakan said.
He planned to deliver the first donations to Kelantan on Jan 17 and 18.
Panu Uthairat, secretary-general of the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre, said the biggest need was for drinking water. Donors could deliver supplies at district offices.
Pol Maj Gen Songkiat Wathakul, deputy commissioner of the Southern Border Provinces Police, said police in the border provinces were also gathering donations and would forward them to provincial halls in the region.