Govt approves budget for two drought-busting projects
Play
A Cabinet meeting, presided over by Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, Wednesday approved a budget of Bt721 million for two projects to tackle next year's drought, Government Spokesman Major Sansern Kaewkamnerd said.
The first was a Bt604-million project to build 30 “monkey cheek” water retaining areas in five Northeastern provinces: Nakhon Phanom (9), Nong Khai (6), Bung Kan (4), Loei (3) and Mukdahan (8). It will be overseen by the Royal Irrigation Department.
Sansern said such “monkey cheek” areas – with a combined storage capacity of 12.77 million cubic metres of water before it poured into the Mekong River – would benefit 14,680 rai of land and 6,030 households.
The second project was a Bt117-million plan to build sandbag check dams at 526 locations along small canals nationwide (100 in the North, 184 in the Northeast, 10 in Central Thailand and 32 in the East). They would boost waterway efficiency and store about 51.73 million cubic metres in total, benefiting 300,000 rai of land and over 20,000 households, he said.
