BANGKOK, 8 April 2013 The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) has reported more provinces are now being hit hard by the drought crisis while water level at a number of dams has seriously plunged.
The DDPM reported on Monday that there are now more than 31,700 villages in 45 provinces declared as drought disaster zones.
Out of this, 28 provinces, most of which are in the North and the Northeast, are suffering serious crisis. They are such as Kalasin, Udon Thani, Maha Sarakham, Yasothon, Tak, Chiang Rai, Mae Hong Son and Phayao.
Meanwhile, records from all large reservoirs and dams across the country are holding 38.32 billion cubic meters of water, or 55% of their combined capacity. The current data also indicated that this year’s water storage is some 4.7 billion cubic meters less than last year.
In addition, 7 large dams are seeing their water level lower than 30%
