They said the death toll was six, not seven, as previously reported.

Some 1,000 residents and security officers cleared roads and homes in Ban Yang Village in Tambon Mae Ngon swamped by a one-metre tide of mud and debris.

But strong currents stopped them fixing the severely eroded road to the Royal Project on Doi Angkhang.

A Mae Ngon Administration Organisation member, Chatchai Jangjiarat, said the death toll was six because Mei Saeting - who had been listed as dead - was alive and recovering in Fang Hospital.

Provincial disaster prevention chief Prachon Prasakul insisted that Ban Yang Village had been warned prior to the flood and many residents evacuated to high ground - but the dead were mostly elderly people who refused to leave their homes.

Prachon said local officials had distributed food and drinking water to help victims, after Fang's 11 villages were hit by flash floods, and relief bags were airlifted by helicopter to Ban Pang Kwai and Ban Mae Khan villages, which had been cut off.

Chiang Mai Governor Suwat Tantipat had approved Bt50 million to assist victims, Prachon said, adding that authorities would later assess damage for compensation. The Royal Project on Doi Ang-khang looked to have suffered at least Bt100 million in damages, as its food-processing facility had been destroyed.

Meanwhile, environmental activist Nikom Putta, of the Chiang Mai-based Ping watershed management project, said the Fang crisis stemmed from land encroachment by certain investors to grow oranges. Heavy use of chemicals prevented grass cover on the soil and affected the soil structure while the orange trees were grown in rows, not in steps, which he said, caused rainwater to run off quickly and become a torrent.

The Nation

CHIANG MAI