FTI warns industry to brace for dual water risks, urges dry-season planning
The Federation of Thai Industries, or FTI, has warned the industrial sector to manage two water risks at once: coping with heavy rain and localized flooding in the short term, and ensuring sufficient raw water for the dry season. Prida Watcharienthaisakul, FTI vice chairman and chairman of the Water, Environment and Climate Change Institute, said heavy rain at certain times does not mean every area will have enough water. Data from the Thai Water Resources Information Institute as of September 18, 2026, indicates that from September 18 to 20, 2026, many areas must be on alert for flash floods, forest runoff and waterlogging. Areas at risk from 24-hour accumulated rainfall include Phitsanulok, Chanthaburi, Trat, Nakhon Phanom, Nan, Phrae, Krabi, Chumphon, Trang, Phang Nga, Ranong and Surat Thani. Nationwide accumulated rainfall from January 1 to September 13, 2026, stood at 1,032.6 millimeters, with the eastern South recording rainfall 28 percent below normal, the Central region 18 percent below and the East 13 percent below. Data from the Royal Irrigation Department as of September 18, 2026, shows that 496 large and medium-sized reservoirs held a combined 55,015 million cubic meters, or 72 percent of capacity, with 31,041 million cubic meters of usable water, or 59 percent, which is 4,210 million cubic meters lower than the same period in 2025. The FTI recommends that businesses prepare water management plans at at least three levels: normal conditions, alert conditions and water-scarcity conditions, while accelerating efforts to cut water loss and reuse water. Meanwhile, the FTI's Water, Environment and Climate Change Institute is developing a Water Information & Early Warning system to produce an Industrial Water Risk Map and expand its Water War Room network in line with the FTI's 5I policy, specifically I4 Industrial Infrastructure Reform and I5 Inclusive Sustainability.
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CenterPoint Energy Replaces US$2.40 Billion Credit Facility With US$2.20 Billion Five-Year Revolver
CenterPoint Energy, Inc. replaced its prior US$2.40 billion unsecured revolving credit facility with a new five-year senior unsecured revolving credit facility of US$2.20 billion in September 2026. The new facility includes swingline loan and standby letter of credit subfacilities, extendable maturities, and a covenant capping the company's debt-to-capitalization ratio at 67.5%. It also carries a built-in covenant adjustment that temporarily allows higher leverage if large, securitizable natural-disaster restoration costs arise in its service territory. The refreshed facility modestly tightens leverage capacity while adding disaster-related flexibility, and the company also completed Phase Two of the Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative. CenterPoint Energy's narrative projects $11.4 billion in revenue and $1.6 billion in earnings by 2029, with a $46.12 fair value estimate implying 20% upside.
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Indonesia Tightens Penalties for Forest Burning, Weighs 'Ecological Terrorism' Law
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has ordered relevant agencies to tighten legal enforcement and penalties against those using slash-and-burn methods to clear land, after the country faced weeks of severe forest fires that produced haze affecting neighboring countries. At a cabinet meeting, Prabowo said the government would not be lenient toward individuals or companies responsible for the fires, and instructed the Minister of the Presidential Secretariat and the Minister of Law to consider ways to increase legal penalties, and proposed that the government discuss with the House of Representatives to tighten the law, possibly classifying such burning as "ecological terrorism" given the severity of the problem. He also ordered local governments to revoke exemptions that allow smallholder farmers to use fire to clear small plots, and directed police to pursue criminal cases against companies that violate fire prevention measures. Reports say the Indonesian government has mobilized more than 50 aircraft to drop water and conduct cloud seeding to control the fires, while Japan sent three CH-47 Chinook helicopters to join the water-dropping mission on Wednesday, September 16. This fire season is the most severe in 11 years, amid weather from a "super El Niño" phenomenon that has left forests and agricultural land severely dry, with Borneo and Sumatra the worst-affected areas. The haze has increased respiratory illness cases and pushed air quality in Singapore and Malaysia to levels harmful to health. Government data show that from January to July this year, fires burned 202,000 hectares, or nearly 500,000 acres, while YKAN, an environmental group, estimates that fires caused an additional roughly 600,000 hectares, or 1.4 million acres, of damage in August. Indonesian Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni warned that the fires could persist into early November, as the rainy season is likely to arrive later than previously expected.
