Thais brace for flooding

Workers in central Thailand slowly hoist a 440-tonne school building above the ground.

The job is in preparation for monsoon season, after the severe flooding which devastated much of the country last year.

It will take another three weeks to lift the building beams 12 feet above ground to a level over that of last year's flooding.

A number of houses in badly affected provinces such as Ayutthaya have been lifted onto higher stilts.

Here, a concrete floodwall is being built to protect the 213 factories that make up an industrial estate.

(SOUNDBITE) (Thai) VICHIEN SANGUANSUPYAKORN, GENERAL MANAGER OF ROJANA INDUSTRIAL PARK, SAYING:

"Some factories have built their own flood barriers as a third flood prevention. The first flood prevention is the short and long term plans by the government, the second is the flood wall by the industrial estate and the last is from the factories themselves."

Canals around the capital are being cleared in the hope they could help divert floodwaters from central Bangkok.

(SOUNDBITE) (Thai) COLONEL SITHISETH HIRANYAPHONG, CHIEF OF ARMY ENGINEER, SAYING:

"If we dig up the soil, it will make the canal deeper which can speed up the water flow. This can protect or relieve a possible flood that might happen again in the future."

Last year Thailand was hit by the worst flooding in five decades, killing more than 800 people, swamping industrial estates, and crippling businesses.

This year, flood prevention measures are expected to be finished just before monsoon rains begins some time in August.

Nick Rowlands, Reuters.