Thailand's Sirikit Dam Water Hits 18Year Low

[webfact]

Sirikit Dam water hits 18year low

By The The Nation

UTTARADIT: -- The water level in Sirikit Dam in Uttaradit province has hit an 18-year low, with no water available for irrigation, forcing farmers to postpone the planting of crops.

Current supplies would be enough for just two months' use if there was no rain, Uttaradit governor Yothin Samutkhiri said yesterday.

"There has been no water flowing into Sirikit Dam and we can no longer release water from the dam to support in-season farming as in the past," Yothin said.

The province had asked local farmers to postpone planting for at least one or two months and wait for more rain to prevent agricultural damage.

Sirikit Dam director Somkid Khangrang said only 8 per cent or 550 million cubic metres of water in the dam could be used at this time.

The dam can hold 9.51 billion cubic metres of water. The current volume was 127 million cubic metres below the preliminary forecast and 3.7 billion cubic metres below the same period last year.

Uttaradit's Rice Community President said prolonged and extensive drought had forced downstream farmers to delay seasonal rice planting for 1-2 months or till there was enough water to farm. However he urged authorities to get communities to make decisions about rice farming and be clear about responsibility and postponement.

"Most farmers divide their grain into three parts - for sale, for household consumption and for seedlings. Delaying planting will affect the last two parts that farmers need to keep in store for another five months before the seasonal rice-growing can be done again. This might cause them to buy rice to eat and a low quality of seedlings, as well as lifestyle problems and overdue debts," he warned.

Tron district's leading farmer Sathit Maentaem said the postponement was impractical because framers had borrowed money for rice growing and that about 50 per cent of some 400,000 rai of rice fields in the province were already sown.

-- The Nation 2010-06-08

[MikeyIdea]

This will be a much bigger problem for our children than Thaksin. I drove from the loop Tak by the Burmese border up to Mae Hong San with my daughter in March, it was difficult to see from one valley to another most of the time because of the smoke, a disaster in the making. That will also be a much bigger problem for our children than Thaksin. Most of us are happily living in Thailand closing our eyes to the environmental disaster that is slowly coming. It won't come in time to hurt us badly but will surely be in time to hurt our our children.

[SomTumTiger]

Probably the most important topic on the board, and gets the least amount of views and replies. "But climate change is a myth"....gag

[djlest]

Its funny....

Karma i mean...

How burning the buildings of Bangkok down before going back to the fields to work.

But now perhaps the sun will burn the crops to dust which seems rather odd and such a coincidence if its an 18year phenomena.

we cant escape the laws of nature now can we...

burn and ye will be burnt...

[Val]

This will be a much bigger problem for our children than Thaksin. I drove from the loop Tak by the Burmese border up to Mae Hong San with my daughter in March, it was difficult to see from one valley to another most of the time because of the smoke, a disaster in the making. That will also be a much bigger problem for our children than Thaksin. Most of us are happily living in Thailand closing our eyes to the environmental disaster that is slowly coming. It won't come in time to hurt us badly but will surely be in time to hurt our our children.

Its all very sad. The land fills are supposed to be full in 2012. Its a huge problem in the making for Thailand.

I did read somewhere of Thailand selling water to the Chinese, is threr any truth to this ??