The Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department revealed that the number of provinces hit by drought has increased to 56.

Kosit said the plan to tackle drought had been completed using past lessons from water-related disasters, and the overall scheme included a proposal for a Bt4 billion budget for water management.

He said that relevant agencies including the Natural Resource and Environment Ministry and the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry had been assigned to discuss water usage laws in detail to see if they should add anything to the current legislation, based on the lessons from last year.

Kosit's comments were made after he presided over the opening ceremony of the "Father of Water Management" fair held at Impact Arena, Muang Thong Thani to celebrate His Majesty the King's 80th birthday and World Water Day 2007 yesterday. 

Separately, the Disaster Pre-vention and Mitigation Depart-ment's director-general Anucha Mokka-wet said that from last November until Wednesday, 56 provinces had been hit by drought. Most were in the north and north-eastern regions and more than nine million people and 130,000 rai of agricultural land had been affected.