CHAIYAPHUM, 12 June 2015 – Agriculturists in Chaiyaphum and Khon Kaen are facing a bleak future as Chulabhorn Dam which used to supply water for their plantations is now in danger of running out of water if no rain comes by the end of June, according to the Director of Electricity Plant Division at Chulabhorn Dam in Khon San District, Chaiyaphum.
The director said that the current water volume in the dam and also in its neighboring smaller “Huai Kum Dam” has hit the lowest level in ten years. According to him, water reserves in both dams dried up at the end of April this year, but some rainfalls in May led around ten million cubic meters of water to flow in. The new amount of water reserve will, however, be used up by the end of June.
The same official said if no rain comes in by the end of June, Chulabhorn and Huai Kum Dams would need to stop water release to farmers in order to reserve water for use during the no-rain interval period.
Chulabhorn Dam, which has the capacity of storing a total of 188 million cubic meters, has only 71.9 million cubic meters of water left in its reservoir. Of this amount, only 34.7 million cubic meters are being supplied to farmland.
Similarly, around 5.4 million cubic meters of water remain in Huai Kum Dam and 3.8 million of that amount is being released to farmers. Local farmers in the Districts of Kaset Sombun, Phu Khieo and Ban Thaen in Chaiyaphum as well as those in Chum Phae District, Khon Kaen, usually use irrigation water supplied from both dams to nurture their fields. However, the current water supply was quite low and insufficient, prompting them to request more water from Chulabhorn Dam authorities.
