Floodwaters damage more than 853,000 rai of agricultural land in the North

[webfact]

Floodwaters damage more than 853,000 rai of agricultural land in the North

BANGKOK, 9 September 2014 (NNT) – More than 853,000 rai of farmland have been devastated by floods that recently hammered Thailand’s northern region.

According to the Permanent Secretary for Agriculture and Cooperatives Mr. Chavalit Chukachorn, the damage to agricultural farms includes 160,000 livestock animals, 390,000 freshwater species, and 58,000 rai of rice fields.

Provinces that are most affected by the floods include Sukhothai, Nakhon Sawan, and Ayutthaya. Mr. Chavalit said authorities would be urgently inspecting the damages after the floods subside and submit their findings to the Finance Ministry within 30 days to request an allocation from the central budget.

Mr. Chavalit said, however, that should the rains stay at the current level during September-October, the floodwaters could help raise the amounts of water in various reservoirs and reduce water shortage in the drought season. As of today, most reservoirs are about 34 percent full, which is lower than last year’s level.


-- NNT 2014-09-09

[jimbo34]

rain, rain, rain everywhere, yet "reservoirs only 34% full" ! How does that work?

[ratcatcher]

rain, rain, rain everywhere, yet "reservoirs only 34% full" ! How does that work?

Maybe there wasn't enough rainfall in the catchment areas to the north of the dams earlier in the "rainy season".

What we get between now and the season end maybe insufficient to fill the reservoirs to storage capacity for the coming dry months.

[NongKhaiKid]

However it's not worrisome and that's official.

[Lupatria]

This was news at noon today:

• Thai Irrigation Dept says this year's flood nothing to worry about

This is afternoon news:

Floodwaters damage more than 853,000 rai of agricultural land in the North

Are we surrounded by idiots?

[Eddy B]

Yawn! It occurs every year that I have lived here, 10 yrs so far. They do nothing during the cool/summer season to fix river barriers properly, clear the canals of crap and plants and waste money on other stupid projects. When this happens they act surprised and then shake their heads saying their is not enough money to fix the problems. A bloody shambles!! This is not so much aimed new government but for the ones previous who could have done things and just did not bother apart from going for photoshoots at locations in trouble with the wellington boots. Hopefully when the rainy season is over the work needed to be done will be done with the armed forces workforce who can do what they are told.

[Halion]

This is truly not a problem as the Irrigation staff posted an article saying that the flooding was not worrisome.