Thailand prepared for drought

BANGKOK, January 18 (TNA) - Thailand can go through drought this year if people cooperate with water-saving measures. Natural Resources and Environment Minister General Surasak Kanchanarat made the remarks on Monday, saying that his ministry's Department of Groundwater Resources is distributing water, including drinking water, to affected people and will drill 6,000 artesian wells over the next three months. General Surasak stressed if people and farmers cooperate by saving water and growing plants that consume less water, remaining water reserves will be enough for domestic consumption until mid-2016. General Surasak told journalists that accumulated rain was measured 1,419.7 millimeters in 2015, some 11 per cent below average, while large reservoirs are now holding 39,237 million cubic meters of water, a 7 per cent drop from last year’s figure, and people in 548 districts of 32 provinces are facing a water shortage, accounting for 59 per cent of all districts nationwide. According to the minister, this year's drought is expected to be most serious in Nakhon Sawan, Uthai Thani and Kamphaeng Phet Provinces, where the Lower North and the Upper Central Plain adjoin. Unlike off-season rice, the minister noted, first-crop rice in 800,000 rais of paddy fields (2.5 rais = 1 acre) has not been damaged. (TNA)