BANGKOK – Farmers in the Chao Praya River Basin are suggested to refrain from growing an extra crop of rice during drought season.
The Royal Irrigation Department Office 12 announced that four major dams in the Chao Praya River Basin currently contain 4,247 million cubic meters of water. Such limited volume of water will be reserved for consumption and maintaining of the ecosystem until April 2016 which will require a total of 2,500 million cubic meters of water.
The agency will have to reserve 1,300 million cubic meters of water for consumption, should there be no rainfall from May until July 2016. That limited volume of water cannot support an extra crop of rice farming which would otherwise need 4,000-5,000 million cubic meters.
However, the Royal Irrigation Department will continue to provide knowledge and understanding about the limited water supply to the farmers as well as others who are suggested to use water sparingly.
