Cabinet to discuss drought today

PRIME MINISTER Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday ordered a halt to discussing the drought agenda in yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, emphasising that it was an important issue and would be a topic today in the meeting of the “economic cabinet”.
The country is facing a severe drought crisis due to rainfall declining by 60-70 per cent compared with the annual average. Water reserves in the dams now total 3.8 billion cubic metres when the usual levels are more than 20 billion.
Maj-General Sansern Kaewkam-nerd, a deputy government spokesman, said yesterday that measures to counter the drought crisis had not been discussed in the Cabinet meeting as Prayut was in Myanmar for a regional summit. The drought issue will be part of the agenda when the Economy Ministry meets today.
Prayut said the drought issue was a crucial one and should be addressed in one continual meeting rather than in separate sessions.
The government’s proposed attempt to resolve the crisis includes accessing underground and groundwater to supplement water from the dams.
Sansern said the order had been passed down to the agriculture minister to ask farmers to put off their annual rice planting to mid-July to alleviate the water shortage. However, in the irrigation area, about 4 million rai (640,000 hectares) of rice has already been planted. The government has asked farmers to hold off the planting of another 3.7 million rai.
Outside the 2.3-million-rai irrigation area, 1.3 million rai has already been planted.
Sansern said Prayut was not only concerned for the rice farmers but also other agriculturists. Both groups were equally important and the government was trying to find measures to tackle the problem.
The Office of the National Water and Flood Management Policy as well as the Agriculture Ministry are in charge of finding solutions to the problem.
Underground and groundwater would be pumped up and put to use and attempts at artificial rain sought to defuse the crisis, Sansern said.
Further discussion about the issue as well as countermeasures will take place today in the economic cabinet meeting as ordered by Prayut.
Sansern said the Cabinet had approved measures to include around 37,000 rice-farming families from the southeast coast in the government’s cash handout programme for low-income earners.
Agriculture Minister Peetipong Phuengbun na Ayutthaya said he was planning to request a budget to compensate farmers hit by the drought. Natural Resources and Environment Minister General Dapong Ratanasuwan said a nationwide survey of underground water and wells would begin soon after he had given an order to the Department of Underwater Resources.
The National Council for Peace and Order last year approved a Bt40-billion cash-handout scheme to rice farmers affected by the slowdown in the economy and the drop in crop prices. Deputy Prime Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula and the Finance Ministry are also working on a similar programme in the wake of the drought.
Finance Minister Sommai Phasee said last week the new handout programme for farmers’ revival would be similar to the previous Bt1,000 per rai with a cap of Bt15,000 per farmer. The exact number eligible for the payments was under discussion.
Sommai did not reveal when the cash would be doled out but said it would be “soon”.
“Around 37,402 farmers in the South have not received the money from the government’s previous measure to help low-income earners as |the time period for growing rice in |the South is not the same as the Central and Northeastern regions,” Sansern said.
“The last time the payment was handed out, from October to December, the rice farmers in the South had yet to begin their growing season, so the Cabinet yesterday approved their inclusion in the programme,” he said.