Thailand's IT for water management to be integrated in mid-2012

BANGKOK, Febraury 22 (TNA) - National Disaster Warning Centre Director Somsak Khaosuwan has affirmed that Thailand's existing information technologies (IT) for water management will be integrated into a single system by May 2012 for the sake of its practical and effective utilization, as instructed by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA)’s Director has acknowledged, on the other hand, that radar and satellite-based systems have already been used in Thailand to forecast and monitor rainfalls and water sources, saying that GISTDA is now identifying the heights of layers of land in order to better indicate the amount of currents and directions of water, with the completion of the project expected by May 2012. According to Royon Jitrdon, Director of the Institute of the Information System on Agricultural and Water Resources, Thailand tends to have a greater amount of downpours this year and most parts of the country remain at risk of both drought and flooding due to inappropriate land and water management. Royon encouraged the government to work to overcome both repeated flooding and drought parallelly, as well as to develop 26 million rai plots of irrigation land as Thailand's water security areas and improve some 130 million rai plots of land outside irrigation areas, particularly in the country's northeastern region, using IT to analyze and synchronize all data available at various agencies. (TNA)