Rehab of small water sources to be speeded up

Department chief Siripong Hungspreug said yesterday that the water sources to be rehabilitated were 1,189 in the Northeast, 2,011 in the North, 846 in the central region and 2,506 in the South.

The project is expected to increase water storage potential at major and natural sources by 834 million cubic metres, and thus alleviate flooding and become the source of water for consumption - especially during periods of drought - to 359,560 families in the 2.19-million-rai area, he said.

He added that this was in response to His Majesty the King's initiatives concerning water management and water-related disaster alleviation.

Siripong said that, to tackle flooding that might occur this rainy season, the department had assigned water resource offices 1-10 to monitor the situation closely, especially in areas which suffer repeated flooding, and to activate a 24-hour flood watch - especially in high-risk provinces in the North and Northeast such as Udon Thani, Nan, Phrae, Uttaradit, Sukhothai and Chiang Rai.

Officials were also instructed to practise the use of tools, while flood-landslide warning systems have been installed in 500 villages and river-basin flood-warning systems have been installed in the Bang Prakong, Mun, Khong and Chao Phya basins.

Next year, the department aims to install flood-landslide warning systems in 100 more villages, using a Bt45-million budget. Within five years, it is expected that such warning systems will be available in all 2,370 targeted villages, he said.

"The department will also dispatch 12 mobile units to produce clean tap water for flood-affected residents," he said, adding that one unit was able to produce at least 20,000 litres per day of clean drinking water from natural sources.