Thailand’s water supplies may run short from November
The Royal Irrigation Department is advising farmers to rely more on rainfall rather than irrigation, because the water in reservoirs is limited.
Thongplew Kongjun, the department’s director-general, also warned that the country may run short on water supplies from November 1 to April 30 next year, because the demand for water is expected to hit 31,351.15 million cubic metres.
“As of May 1, reservoirs nationwide had 11,654 million cubic metres of water,” he said.
“According to the water allocation plan, 2,980 million cubic metres will be used for consumption, 3,654 million cubic metres for preserving the ecosystem, 4,974 million cubic metres for agriculture and 367 million cubic metres for industries.”
Meanwhile, Somkiat Prajamwong, secretary-general of the Office of the National Water Resources, said the quantity of water available nationwide was 35,484 million cubic metres.
“We expect rivers to rise as Thailand has entered the rainy season,” he said, adding however that some areas, especially those outside the irrigation areas, may run out of water for agriculture because the Thai Meteorological Department estimates 5 per cent less rain this year.
“Hence, the National Water Resource Committee has been tasked with the job of reserving as much rainwater as possible and ask people to also reserve as much water as they can.”