Drought worsens in Buriram; 31 provinces remain drought-stricken

BURIRAM, 3 May 2013 (NNT) – The drought situation in Buriram has intensified to encompass every district in the province, creating hardship for as many as 150,000 families.

The water levels at all of Buriram's 16 reservoirs continue to recede. Only 5.9 million cubic meters, or 20% capacity, remains at Huay Charakhae Mak reservoir, a major source of raw water which feeds the tap water system serving around 23,000 households.

Agriculture Ministry officials in Buriram has already made requests to the royal rain-making centers in Nakhon Ratchasima and Khonkaen province to carry out cloud-seeding operations over Buriram, in order to increase the water levels at reservoirs.

According to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, 48 provinces remain affected by drought, with 31 provinces severely afflicted. Much of the drought-stricken provinces are those in the northern and northeastern regions.


-- NNT 2013-05-03

In my amphur (Krasang, Buriram), we've had a certain amount of rain recently. There is water lying on the surface of some paddy fields, and I have seen some farmers sowing the rice.

We get our water from a well. but our shop is on the mains system. In neither place is there a shortage.

What 'drought' means in this context is simply low levels of water in the main reservoirs (the village ones look fine round here).

We are in Satuek and have had very little rainfall however, last Thursday a storm came through which absolutely dumped about 300-400mill of rain in about an hour. I have 20,000 ltrs of rainwater tanks fed off the house roof.

Prior to the storm they were pretty well empty, now they are half full.

(Took four days to get our wifi internet service back though)!

In my village out in Kalasin, most households haven't had government water for at least a month. We still have it at our place, my guess is that we have a pump and a small tank to keep the water in, whereas the others do not, and we are still able to pull enough of the trickle still coming through in. We are also located on the outskirts of the village which also may have something to do with why we still have water and others don't.

Im not sure I like the concept of government water. Does it fail to work on the overly-numerous public holidays, is it often full of hot air and does it change colour every four years?