Government Spokesman Maj. Gen. Sansern Kaewkamnerd revealed that the government has assigned the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives to undertake a project “Digging Small Reservoirs for Agricultural Field outside Irrigation Areas” or “Small Ponds” across the country to tackle drought in areas outside the irrigation areas in order for people to have reservoir for water consumption and agriculture as the government’s initiative to ensure resource security and create a balance between conservation and sustainable use.

     In fiscal year 2015, the government has allocated 356 million baht to digging 20,000 more small ponds. Each pond incurs a cost of 20,300 baht: government contribution 17,800 baht and farmer (land owner)’s own contribution 2,500 baht. From October 2014 to September 2015, the government has dug 56,206 small ponds. The ponds are able to hold 1,260 cbm of water for consumption, fish farming, and vegetable gardening around the pond’s edges for household consumption, helping cut household expenses.
    
     “The Prime Minister is greatly concerned about the living of the people, especially those outside the irrigation areas who face chronic drought. As a result, he has regularly followed up on the progress of the project and has emphasized the responsible agencies to quickly complete the project in order to ensure the people have sufficient water for consumption and agriculture. We will continue the project to tackle long-term drought in every region.”

     Even though the government has planned and implemented several measures to tackle drought including using Royal Rainmaking to amass water in dams, undertaking the Monkey’s Cheeks Project to keep water in an area, planning water distribution for consumption and ecosystem preservation, and digging small ponds across the country, the most important thing is that the people have to recognise the importance of water and water issues. We need to understand that the amount of water in our country largely depends on the amount of rain. Also, the changing global climate has reduced the amount of rain above dams and caused intermittent rainfall or lack of rainfall. We ask for the people’s cooperation in conserving water and avoiding loitering in water. We also believe that farmers should switch to crops that require less water in order to mitigate the risk of drought crisis in the future.

Create by  - Supawan  Sittipanya (7/1/2019 11:59:16 AM)