FTI warns East may be hit by drought

“We have monitored the water level in reservoirs in Rayong and the situation is not very pleasant,” Teerasak Padoongtantrakul, vice chairman of the FTI’s institute on |sustainable water management, said yesterday.
The private sector urged prompt planning by the government.
The FTI has set up a war room to track the critical situation.
In a statement jointly released with Eastern Water Resources Develop-ment and Management, a key raw water supplier in the East, the FTI said drought in the East is imminent. It could hit both industrial and agricultural activities, with similar signs witnessed as in 2004, which resulted in the severe drought of 2005, it said.
If another drought on that scale strikes, it would inflict damage of Bt7.6 billion to the agricultural sector and more than Bt300 billion to |the industrial sector, according to estimates.

LESS RAIN THIS YEAR
Teerasak said one of the ominous signs is lower rainfall during this rainy season than last year, with some downpours missing reservoirs.
“We need measures to cope with possible drought, like the diversion of water from Prasae reservoir, which has been connected with the Rayong industrial zone through a pipeline. Under the circumstances, the industrial sector has asked the Royal Irrigation Department to start diverting the water as a precaution,” he said.
The water will be sent to Klong Yai, which is the main water resource for Rayong. However, the water there could be used for the household, agricultural and industrial sectors.
Since it is not under the Irrigation Department’s supervision, industrial plants are asking the government to allocate a special budget for the water diversion project under the inclusive water management scheme approved recently by the mobile Cabinet meeting in Rayong.
Teerasak estimates that the diversion project would cost about Bt200 million, mostly for electricity, maintenance and coordination with local authorities.
Charoensuk Woraphansophak, a senior executive vice president of EastWater, said raw water holdings had been declining, as rainfall until this month has been below average. Water in the main reservoirs – Dokrai, Nong Plalai and Klong Yai – as of |July 13 had reached 137.4 million cubic metres, or only 49.9 per cent of capacity.
Should rainfall not increase in the later months, a drought is possible, he said.
Together with the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand, the FTI is closely monitoring the situation, prepared to implement measures if the situation worsens.
Action plans include diverting water from nearby sources and recycling more of the water used in the production process. Each plant has been instructed to come up with its own water-supply plan.
In 2005, some plants resorted to desalination and some had to import water by sea.