Rain is not expected until mid-May

[george]

Govt drought crisis meeting

BANGKOK: -- The deputy interior minister Somchai Suntornwat has met 25 governors of central and eastern provinces to assess the current drought crisis, amidst warning that rain is not expected until mid-May.

The forum took place on Sunday as more than two million households in 71 provinces across Thailand have been severely hit by the drought. In the central and eastern regions, the drought has caused losses of nearly two billion baht.

So far only four provinces have been spared -- Samut Sakorn, Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani and Nakon Pathom.

Various government agencies are working together to salvage nearly five million rais of farm land with emergency water supplies.

Government irrigation experts told the meeting that this year’s rainfall was exceptionally low resulting in the dams being unable to supply water.

One of the biggest causes of the annual drought crisis is the fact that most farmers have tended to ignore official warnings to refrain from planting the second rice crop during the dry season.

Despite the warnings, farmers have planted more than nine million rais of rice across the country – with 1.7 million rais located in the central area, Thailand’s main rice-growing region.

The deputy interior minister assured the governors that the government would provide enough funds for the planned drought relief operations.

But an integrated and sustainable management of water resources was needed to solve the problems caused by the annual drought.

“The situation in the central and eastern regions is relatively better than the northeast. The government warning against a second rice crop wasn’t heeded because high prices are always a larger incentive for farmers to risk,” said the minister.

--TNA 2005-03-20

[penzman]

I was around Ubon Ratchathani and around the Mekong 2 weeks ago. There was a huge reservoir and dam, the water level was normal. A friend of mine is saying farmers were complaining that the goverment was keeping too much water in some reservoirs and could allow some to flow.

I figure they'd better let some of it seep into the ground than just let it evaporate into thin air from the reservoir.

[Ned]

What's all this nonsense about the drought going to break mid May. Try mid July if you're lucky......and then only enough to wet the earth. This is no ordinary drought this year boys. We're looking at almost no rain until September at the earliest. This land's a gonna burn and implode. The peasants will evacuate the land in their millions and chaos will rein. The PM and his family and cronies will head off to their ancestral land of China.