Sirikit Dam’s water level lowest in five years
The level of water in Uttaradit’s Sirikit Dam is the lowest in five years following months of no rain upstream, the dam’s deputy director said on Saturday.
Wutthikrai Sangthorn, deputy director of Sirikit Dam, said the reservoir now has 3.3 billion cubic metres, which is only 34 per cent of the dam’s capacity. However, only 459 million cubic metres of this water can be used, as the rest is required to preserve the dam’s structure.
He said months of no rain has caused the water level to drop, so the management has had to gradually reduce the amount of water released for irrigation between August and October from 14 million cubic metres per day to 10 million, then 4 million and eventually 3 million cubic metres per day. The reduced amount of water released will not be adequate for farming.
He added that the influence of tropical storm Wipha, which will soon make landfall over Vietnam, is starting to bring rain, but the rate of water flowing into the dam was still as low as 50 million cubic metres per day, compared to 170 million cubic metres of the same period last year.