Thai authority confirms well management of water supply during dry season

BANGKOK, March 11 (TNA) - The Royal Irrigation Department, under the Thai Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, has confirmed that there will be sufficient water supply for both the domestic farm sector and people's consumption during this year's dry season. While voicing the confirmation, the department's director general, Thongplew Kongjun, told journalists that his department has worked out a water supply management plan to ensure sufficient water to be supplied for irrigation areas nationwide during this year's dry season. Thongplew stated that the use of water in irrigation areas across Thailand has been recorded at over 16,100 million cubic meters so far, or about 70 per cent of the combined water supply of 23,100 million cubic meters prepared at all dams and reservoirs to ensure the sufficient supply for the irrigation areas countrywide. The senior official cited as examples that the use of water at irrigation areas along the main Chaophraya River has been slated at over 6,400 million cubic meters so far, out of a total water supply earmarked for the areas until the end of next month at about 8,000 cubic meters. The senior official said his department has also reserved water at all the supply sources nationwide to be sufficiently meet the demand during this year's new cultivating and harvesting season, or until the end of July, seeking local farmers' cooperation, however, to no longer breach his department's guidelines for appropriate growing areas at appropriate times to ensure the sufficient water supply for the domestic agricultural sector. Besides, his department has worked together with other relevant agencies in an integrated aspect, as assigned by Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Grisada Boonrach, including the Ministry of Interior's Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, to prepare measures for preventing the problem of water shortages for people's consumption in any area, or to timely address the problem, if any, during this year's dry season. (TNA)