Ban on Songkran splashing would be impossible: PM

“I will not ban water throwing, because it is impossible,’’ he said.

 “Parents should teach their children to use less water and not to transport water in trucks and splash it for three days and three nights. If there is not enough water for consumption in May, who will take responsibility?’’ he said. “It will be the government.”

Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha was responding to a proposal that the government strictly control water usage. Prayut said the government could make an announcement but people did not seem to listen. “That is our problem,” he said

He also blamed past governments for a failure of water management. 

“We should have had water distribution and piping systems linked nationwide. Why did we not invest in this project long ago? We will fight over water. Soldiers will have to hold guns monitoring water pumps. It should not be like that,” he said.

Prayut has ordered four major dams to release not more than 18 million cubic metres of water for agriculture and also asked local residents to build small dams to store water.

Meanwhile, a road in Pathum Thani’s Nongsua district has been blocked after land subsidence linked to the drought made it impassable.

Klong Rangsit 14 Road collapsed between kilometres 400 and 500, leaving a three-metre hole that a taxi fell into. 

The stretch of road had been fixed, but another 25-metre stretch was affected by subsidence, again making the route impassable.

The road is normally heavily used by farmers to transport their produce to market.

Thitinan Charoen-art, municipal clerk of Muang Sananrak, said the road would be blocked while the subsidence-affected area was repaired, adding that officials would meet to discuss the problem of the drought.

Phayao Governor Supachai Iam-suwan said there was only 14 million cubic metres of water in Phayao Lake even though water had been diverted from Mae Tam reservoir. He said the lake lost about 10,000 cubic metres of water per day, which officials were investigating.

Phayao’s Provincial Waterworks Office branch manager Krit Ketcharal said officials were installing pipes to pump water to the lake.

The office has reserved water in Nong Kwang reservoir to be used for tap-water and built a mobile water production plant that can process up to 200 cubic metres of water per hour.

He said raw water in Phayao Lake could produce tap-water for not more than two months. “We are waiting for a miracle of rain during Songkran or we will divert water from Nong Kwang as the last resort,’’ he said.