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Thais eye water from rivers on Myan
- Subject: Thais eye water from rivers on Myan
- From: moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 23:06:00
Subject: Thais eye water from rivers on Myanmar border
JAN 23 1999
Thais eye water from rivers on Myanmar
border
Reuters 23 Jan 1999
Bangkok may reconsider its 1995 plan to drain water
from the
Salween and Moei rivers on the border, ahead of its
projected
water shortage
BANGKOK -- Thailand, bracing itself for its worst water
shortage in
decades, said it plans to drain supplies from the
Salween and Moei
rivers which demarcate its border with Myanmar.
The plan to drain 3.5 billion cu m of fresh water
annually from the
rivers was initiated in 1995.
It was now being reconsidered by the Cabinet, said a
government
minister on Thursday.
"The Cabinet is considering the project and I am
optimistic that it will
materialise soon," Science, Technology & Environment
Minister Suvit
Khunkitti said.
Talks would be held with the Myanmar government to ask
if the
country would like to join in the water-draining project.
"At the moment we have only 3.7 billion cu m of water
reserves in the
Bhumibol Dam, which is regarded as a crisis level," Mr
Suvit said.
The Agriculture Ministry expects around 96,000 ha of
dry-season
rice-planting area will be hit by the water shortage.
The ministry has also appealed to farmers to stop
planting more
dry-season rice which relies entirely on irrigation
water.
Dry-season rice is planted from November to May.
The government has also asked Thais to cut down water
usage and
farmers to diversify into crops that use less water than
rice, such as
corn and soya bean.
Orange planters in Phathum Thani province, in the
northern outskirts
of Bangkok, estimated that at least 70 per cent of their
annual
350-million-tonne yield would be damaged by the water
shortage.
Reuters