It's Us! Pattaya is Officially in a Drought

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In an earlier thread I posted an article that said several Thai provinces would be hit by a severe drought again this year, but that article didn't specify which provinces. Now, according to the following article, Chonburi Province (Pattaya's Province) is among the affected provinces.

 

The following appears in the BANGKOK POST:

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Severe Drought Hits 16 Provinces

 

Crops Under Threat Across Central Plains

 

By Chinawat Singha

 

A severe, ''third-degree'' drought has spread to 16 districts in nine provinces mostly in the Central Plains, according to the Land Development Department. The worst level of drought _ where moisture in the soil is so scarce that plants cannot transpire, causing ground temperature to rise _ has hit 60,053 rai of mostly farmland in 16 districts of Nakhon Sawan, Phichit, Phitsanulok, Uttaradit, Nakhon Ratchasima, Phetchabun, Prachinburi, Chachoengsao and Chonburi.

 

The drought has threatened production of second-season rice crops grown where there is usually an abundant supply of water.

 

The department has shown farmers outside of the stricken areas how to retain moisture in the soil to prevent the third-degree drought from expanding.

 

Farmers have also been told to plant drought-resistant, short-life crops.

 

In Phitsanulok, the provincial office will open drought-relief centres in nine districts as some residents in Bang Rakam district are being forced to drill an artesian well in the middle of the drying Yom river.

 

Governor Pipat Wongsaroj said district chiefs were in charge of setting up the centres. Officials were gauging levels of water sources available to villagers for farming and consumption.

 

He said in Bang Rakam, which is among the districts hit badly by drought, many water sources are still plentiful enough for use.

 

However, Thong Thabplang, 64, of tambon Tha Nangngam in Bang Rakam district, said her village was facing a shortage of water for drinking and washing.

 

Another resident, Vijit Bovornboonrit, 35, said he was afraid the young rice he planted could be lost because there is not enough water in the Yom river, one of the tributaries of the Chao Phraya river, to feed them.

 

So much water had been diverted by upstream villagers that little had reached his area, he said.

 

The river was drying even faster now that farmers were hurrying to pump what little is left of the water onto their rice fields, he added.

 

Mr Vijit said that at the current rate farmers were pumping the water, he expected the river to dry up within three days.

 

Some villagers thought they might have to dig an artesian well in the riverbed if necessary.

 

The district is now faced with fighting drought after enduring almost three months of floods at the end of last year.