Drought Hit 11 Provinces

[george]

Drought hit 11 provinces

BANGKOK: -- At least 11 provinces have not seen rains since November, leading to water shortage which affected over 421,000 families, the Interior Ministry announced Saturday.

Anucha Mokhawes, director-general of the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department, said the drought had hit 4,183 villages in 11 provinces, affecting 421,104 families.

The provinces are Kamphaeng Phet, Sukhothai, Lampang, Phrae, Tak, Khon Kaen, Nong Khai, Mukdahan, Amnart Charoen, Nong Bua Lamphu, and Buri Ram.

--The Nation 2007-01-26

[Bryan in Isaan]

Two months without rain - after harvest? I don't want to make light of the situation if someone is going through hardship but doesn't this happen every year? Isn't it called the"dry season"?

As I recall in Kalasin province, it didn't rain much from November until May. Most years there would be a downpour about once a month, just enough to keep a little green out in the fields. I wouldn't think it would be alarming unless it goes four or five months without rain or halfway through planting season with insufficient rain.

Some of those villages must have inadequate wells that go dry if it doesn't rain all the time.

Edited January 28, 2007 by Bryan in Isaan

[chownah]

I think this news release was just a knee jerk sort of thing without much thought.....it hasn't rained where I live in Chiangrai since Novemeber either...why isn't Chiangrai on the list too?....and this is NOT the typical weather here like it is in Isaan.

Chownah

[billd766]

It is true about Khampaeng Phet and yes it does happen every year.

In fact the governmet water supply stopped on Friday and hasn't come back yet.

Our Moo Ban gets its water from the reservoir and that apparrantly has run dry as it does every year.

Now we will have to pump water into the storage tanks from the stream about 300 metres away.

The first year we only had 4 of the 2,000 litre concrete storage jars, the second year we had 10 and this year we have 26 and it still isn't enough.

We have a fish pond the evaporates and seeps away through a crack in the rock somewhere so that is not much use either.