As drought looms, now is the time for new ideas to confront it
Play
THE COUNTRY'S dry season officially kicked off at the beginning of this month, underlining the fact that water shortages will soon become a very hot public issue.
In fact, the limited water supply in various parts of the country has been a big issue for more than one year. It had huge media coverage even during the rainy season.
So, as the dry season has now started, it is hard to be optimistic about the water situation.
Roads along canals and rivers cracked and collapsed as water levels in canals and rivers dropped during the recent wet season due to inadequate rainfail. Tap-water services faltered in a way that affected not just households but also commercial and industrial sites. And farmland, which seemed to bear the brunt, withered – particularly in downstream areas.
Farmers in the Chao Phraya River Basin know full well they have had repeated warnings from government officials that there may not be enough water for their plants to survive.
At times during the water crisis, soldiers were dispatched to patrol key canals to prevent farmers from diverting water in public canals to their paddy fields or vegetable orchards.
Due to the tough measures, many farmers continue to agonise over their withering crops.
“We are still repaying the loan that we sought to invest in our paddy field last farming season. We still owe the money because our rice was water-deprived. It could not bring a good price,” a farmer in Lop Buri province said.
She is now really worried about what will come next.
“If the government says we can’t grow rice outside the rainy season, we will be in real trouble,” she said.
Existing signs don’t bode well for farmers. As of November 3, major dams in the country had less water than last year. Bhumibol Dam, for example, had just 4,990 million cubic metres – down from 6,044 million cubic metres a year earlier. Sirikit Dam also had just 4,908 million cubic metres – down from 5,582 million cubic metres the previous year.
Two dams with direct impact on Bangkok face the same problem. On November 3, Kwai Noi Dam had just 414 million cubic metres of water, down from 791 million cubic metres the previous year. Pasak Jolasid Dam, meanwhile, had just 637 million cubic metres of water, down from 820 million cubic metres a year earlier.
These figures show that farmers will face an even graver shortage of water in the coming year.
Now that the dry season has officially started, little is expected from out-of-season falls.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives has been planning measures since before the wet season ended to help farmers cope with the reality that they won’t be able to grow rice outside the rainy season.
National Farmers Council’s president Prapat Panyachartrak, meanwhile, has revealed that farmer groups plan to ask the government to try to get all citizens to save water – not just people in the agricultural sector.
Speaking at a recent seminar, Prapat said the government should do more to help rice farmers transform their farming techniques.
“Help them during the transition into the era whereby they can use water-saving techniques for growing their plants,” he said.
At the same seminar, Apichart Pongsrihadulchai said in his capacity as an adviser to a subcommittee of the International Network for Water and Ecosystem in Paddy Fields that research showed a new technique could reduce water use by at least 25 per cent, and chemical-fertiliser use by half in paddy fields. “This technique can reduce production cost and boost productivity,” Apichart said.
However, he said the technique had not yet caught on among farmers because relevant agencies had not seriously promoted it and provided support.
Assoc Prof Dr Bancha Kwanyuen, acting president of Kasetsart University, said if the government stuck to its old approach such as offering compensation to affected farmers, the same old problems would continue.
As these figures have pointed out, the government should seriously review its approach to the water crisis.
If the long-used measures cannot prevent droughts from getting worse, do it a different way.
And start now, so that the country can deal better with the droughts that follow.
