Since this year's drought is expected to be more severe and hit many provinces, the Bureau of Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation is planning to make artificial rain more frequently.
The bureau's director Warawut Khantiyanan said the frequency could be 30 to 40 per cent higher than last year if the drought was as severe as expected.
"Six main regional centres, located at the airports in Prachuap Khiri Khan, Rayong, Nakhon Sawan, Chanthaburi, Ubon Ratchathani and Chiang Mai, were left open for the first three months of this year.
These centres should be able to accommodate demand in the provinces and nearby areas," he said.
Earlier, staff were positioned in different regions on a standby mode, before returning to Bangkok in mid-October. However, this year the six regional centres will be manned by 50 officers, who will work closely with local authorities to ease trouble. The bureau has also positioned one volunteer per district across the nation to help evaluate the demand for rain. Instead of filing their requests with the City Hall as before, affected villagers will be given direct access to the centres. There are also plans to establish two sub-centres for each regional centre. The bureau now operates 19 planes and is planning to borrow nine more from the Royal Thai Air Force.
However, Warawut said the biggest obstacle would be financial constraints. The budget for this year has been cut by 30 per cent compared to that of last year. However, he said the office would operate as usual despite having to make rain frequently, and would tap the central budget to cover extra operations.
The bureau is now mired in a corruption scandal, following the semi-monopolistic supply of urea, the chemical used to make rain. The Office of Auditor General launched an investigation when it appeared that only one company bid for the project and won the supply contracts.
"The committee responsible for the procurement of urea decided to continue with the purchase even though only one company bid for the project. However, if they cancelled the bid, the supply of urea would run out and we use the chemical almost every day. In 2008, there was no bidder and last year, we had to resort to urea stocks," Warawut said.
"Moreover, it would have taken a few months to cancel the bid and restart the whole process. Plus there was no guarantee that more companies would join the new bid," he noted.
He noted that according to the bureau's regulations, the procurement could proceed if the committee considered it reasonable.
Even though he has already sent a written explanation of the scandal to the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Warawut said he was ready to provide more information if needed.
