Dam more useful as paddy field than water source
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The water level in Pasak Jolasid Dam is so low that more than 10,000 rai of its land is now perfectly suited to growing rice. Many rice farmers elsewhere, however, are growing desperate because of a water shortage.
In some parts of Pasak Jolasid Dam, the water has plunged to ground level, leaving moist land for farmers to enjoy. Indeed, a number of people have occupied the emerging land plots and are growing rice. Rice plants are already springing up on many plots there.
“We will ask those farmers to move out,” the dam’s water-allocation and maintenance chief Sornmit Sing-kanong said yesterday,
The dam’s water volume now stands at about 25 per cent of capacity. The portions of the dam in Lop Buri’s Chai Ba Dan and Tha Luang districts are dry.
Dozens of provinces are struggling with drought.
In Chai Nat, more than 200 farmers gathered in front of the provincial hall to demand that irrigation systems be used to direct water to their off-season paddy fields.
“Our rice plants are dying. We will lose everything if our paddy fields don’t get water,” protest leader Boonyarit Homjan said.
More than 150,000 rai of paddy fields in the province are at risk, he said.
The protesting farmers dispersed only after Chai Nat Governor Jamlong Phosuk assured them water would reach their fields within five days.
“On May 2, I asked the Sirikit and Bhumibol dams to release more water,” he said. “Water is now heading our way.”
The drought has hurt not just farmers, but also people in other occupations.
In Nakhon Sawan, more than 1,000 farmers in Tambon Wang Nam Lad have been without tap water for six days.
“The main well that produces our tap water is drying up,” tambon Wang Nam Lad councillor Thong-med Prompitak said. “There’s some water near the middle part of the well. So we will need backhoes to dig ditches to channel water to our pipes.”
Uthai Thani is witnessing similar problems. Muang Uthai Thani municipality has stopped providing tap water from midnight to 4am due to the water shortage.
The problem persisted even after backhoes were used to dredge the mouth of Khum Sap Canal in the hope of channelling more water from the Chao Phraya River into the area.
