King and Queen open groundwater project in Kanchananburi
Their Majesties King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida Bajrasudhabimalalakshana presided over the opening ceremony of the Nongfai Groundwater Project in Kanchanaburi’s Lao Khwan district on Sunday.
Their majesties were welcomed by Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Warawut Silpa-archa, and the general public.
The King unveiled the nameplate of the Nongfai Groundwater Project before conferring honorary plaques and gifts to individuals and institutes who contributed to the project. The King and Queen then visited an exhibition of the project’s history, a demonstration farming area, and the mineral-water plant that uses groundwater from the project. After a tree-planting ceremony in front of a water tank, they returned to Bangkok via helicopter.
The Nongfai Groundwater Project was launched in April last year as one of the 15 royal initiatives of King Maha Vajiralongkorn. The project comprises eight 200-metre-deep groundwater wells, two water tanks with 2,000-cubic-metre capacity and a pressure control tower in Nongfai subdistrict to supply water. It will supply water to 37,600 households and 557,000 rai of farmland in Kanchanaburi province during drought season. The construction of the wells and water tanks was completed in November 2021. Since then, the project has used mineral-rich groundwater to produce 2 billion litres of drinking water per year and delivered it to over 3 million people in 512 villages.
