Quote:WEATHER
Extra-long dry season increases risk of drought

Fifteen provinces in initial stages, but 40 likely to be affected, officials say

This dry season will be two or three months longer than usual, posing a high risk of drought where irrigation systems are lacking, according to the Royal Irrigation Department.

Fifteen provinces are now in the initial stages of drought, director-general Samart Chokekhana-phithak said recently, citing RID statistics, although the Interior Ministry has found that 21 per cent of villages located in 40 of the country's 76 provinces are facing the problem.

He said the delay of rain during the last wet season had been caused by the El Nino phenomenon and the unseasonable downpours earlier in January had stopped. The rainy season normally runs from July to October, peaking in August.

Dams and reservoirs are now 81 per cent full, but Interior Ministry figures show that 21 per cent of villages in 40 provinces, totalling 15,698 villages, are suffering from drought.

The figure in 2004, which saw the most severe drought in decades, hit 58 per cent, or 43,623 villages.

The RID has designated only 8.6 million rai of farmland, out of the total of 27 million under its responsibility, for off-season farming.

Samart said he could not give assurances that water would be sufficient for off-season farming outside that 8.6 million rai.

All 367 RID-operated dams and some hydropower dams operated by the Electricity General Authority of Thailand could trap 7.6 billion cubic metres of water, or 7-8 per cent of the volume needed for agricultural use without rainwater.

More dams are urgently needed, but the public tends to object to any being built, Samart said.

Thus it is important to increase the capacity of existing dams to enable them to hold more water, he said, citing two dam projects as an example of successful expansion, the Yang Chum Reservoir in Prachuap Khiri Khan and the Lam Pao Reservoir in Kalasin.

The RID is developing a master plan to lay the groundwork for new irrigation systems and develop existing ones in 25 river basins across the country. The plan includes a large-scale project known as Chao Phya II, in which a new river and a network of tributaries could be dug to distribute water more efficiently in the Central region.

Students in Tak province are feeling the pinch from the drought.

An 11th grader said he had to take water in a bottle to school every day and needed to hide it carefully as the bottles kept going missing because the other students were as thirsty as he was.

The administrators of Ban Klong Sak School in Muang district have to rely on only one water truck a day to supply more than 500 students and teachers in three schools and people living in 10 villages.

Monks at Pho Chai Temple in Nakhon Phanom's Tha Uthen district and nearby residents are forced to use dirty groundwater for cooking and other household uses because they have no mains.

Some of them can afford to buy water at Bt200 a small tank, but most have to collect muddy water from rice fields and purify it with alum.

Pramote Prasongwatthana, head of the provincial civil-defence office, said more than 57,000 households in almost all districts were at the mercy of the drought and that distribution of water could only help them. No water for farming is available, and crops on more than 1,000 rai are wasting away.

Severe drought has ruined 67,290 rai of farmland and affected nearly 500,000 residents in the four lower northern provinces, said Wittaya Wachira-angkun, director of the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Office's Region 5.

The damage in Nakhon Ratchasima, Chaiyaphum, Buri Ram and Si Sa Ket has been estimated at Bt16.6 million and it is predicted that the drought will destroy 78,703 rai of farmland, causing about Bt27 million in damage.

The Nation Feb. 25, 2007

If the climate goes on like that popular music here's gotta change to the thai "dust bowl ballads" :sad:
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Quote:Drought-hit school waits for state help

Nakhon Ratchasima _ Students in Non Thai district are badly in need of water as the drought has dried water sources in the neighbourhood and turned many districts across the country into what officials call ''disaster areas.'' Up to 110 students in Boong Saard Wattana school now have to wait for the state to give them more water. The schools' two containers, carrying 10,000 litres of water in all, are too small to serve enough water to teachers and students.

''Our students are suffering so much that they can't concentrate in class,'' said school director Piya Sirisap.

Officials have already declared Non Thai district and 15 other districts in the province as drought disaster areas. So far 335,598 villagers and more than 700,000 rai of farmland have been hit by the drought.

The province has distributed up to 400,000 litres of water to troubled villagers. The 2nd Region Army, which oversees northeastern provinces, is preparing to help Boon Saard Wattana school by sending in trucks, loaded with water, on March 20.

In Phayao, hundreds of hilltribe people, living in remote villages of Ban Santisuk and Ban Khun Kam Lang, also lack water to feed their farmland.

The villages are under Her Majesty the Queen's project that helps farmers and encourages them to live in harmony with nearby forests. Their problems would be reported to the Queen, said Phayao deputy governor Somsak Suwanjarit.

Other provinces in the Northeast and the North have also been hit by severe drought which villagers say has arrived unusually quickly this year.

In Chiang Rai, the water level in the Laos river has sharply decreased, leaving insufficient water for farmers and forcing many to pump water from artesian wells to feed their crops and vegetables.

The province has declared its 16 districts and two sub-districts as drought disaster areas in a bid to secure a special budget to solve water shortages.

In Phichit, more than 500,000 rai of farmland have been hit by drought causing damage worth 25 million baht. Pho Prathap Chang is the district hardest hit, officials said.


River runs dry
Tourists are able to walk on this part of the Mekong river bed in the Kaeng Khud Khoo rapids area next to Chiang Khan district of Loei province. The coming dry season has afready seen the Mekong and other rivers in the Northeast receding. — Sayand Pornnantharat

Bangkok Post March 10, 2007
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Drought affects 7.9 million people

Drought in 52 of the country's 76 provinces has affected 7.9 million people and some 713,700 rai of farmland, according to Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department chief Anucha Mokawet.

The department sent some 1,200 water pumps to drought-hit areas and is excavating almost 1,000 canals and waterways. It has repaired and built new water tanks in several villages.

The department dispatched more than 850 tankers to supply drought-affected communities, he said.

All this has cost Bt327.6 million, he added.

The Nation

Rainwater Harvesting.

There doesn't appear to be any gov't backed program for Rainwater Harvesting!

AFAIK,  the largest rainwater container is only 300L, hardly enough for a few showers.

What they need is a few 20.000L tanks such as these rotary moulded ones from http://www.polyworld.com.au/rainwater.htm but I'm told no such product exists in Thailand, which I find hard to believe.

Apparently, if it won't fit in the back of a standard pickup, no one will make it.

That sounds like typical Thai "logic"



Maybe, this is the answer, but I don't know the width of a pickup tray.