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NewsAsia 12 Mar 05 Thai king concerned about drought as 10 disaster zones declared BANGKOK : Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej has expressed his concern over the severe drought affecting most of his country, the prime minister said, as 10 disaster zones were declared. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Saturday that during his private royal audience with the monarch at his seaside palace late Friday, the king was worried for the nation. "In my private audience with the king, he said that he was very worried over the drought situation and asked the government to focus on intense efforts on cloud seeding," Thaksin said in his weekly radio address. Thaksin said the agriculture ministry will dispatch planes to stations upcountry to seed clouds where possible. Thaksin spoke as 10 areas in the northern province of Chiang Mai were declared disaster zones, with rivers drying up, crops withering in fields, and drinking wells running empty, the Bangkok Post reported Saturday. Provincial officials could not be reached for comment, but Chiang Mai's disaster management chief Pattrawan Sadudee said water trucks were being deployed while authorities scouted for sites to dig new wells. Thaksin said he has ordered the military to drill 4,000 new drinking wells. The interior ministry's disaster management unit says 63 of Thailand's 76 provinces are suffering from drought. "The ministry expects 70 provinces will be affected by drought this year, including 10 that will be severely hit," it said in its latest report. The department said across the country, 809,000 hectares (two million acres) of farmland have been destroyed by the drought, costing 7.4 billion baht (193.2 million dollars) in damage. Some 9.2 million people are suffering effects of the drought, it said. Banpot Hongthong, permanent secretary in the agriculture ministry, was quoted as saying in the Thai-language paper Thai Rat that water levels in major reservoirs has dropped to 41 percent of capacity, or 18.3 million cubic meters (646 million cubic feet). Water levels have dipped to critical levels in six reservoirs in northeastern and central Thailand, where farmers have been banned from irrigating crops in order to conserve water for drinking. Samart Choksathit, director general of the agriculture ministry's irrigation department, told the paper he has declared an emergency and banned farming of cash crops until the rainy season begins in June in northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima, where reservoir levels are critically low. - AFP links Related articles on Global issues: global biodiversity issues, policies |
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