15 Nan districts declared drought disaster zones

Nan - Nan Deputy Governor Witthaya Kamol said Tuesday that all 15 districts in his province have been declared drought disaster zones.

He said the long period of no rains affected some 216,000 people from 53,183 families living 775 village in the 15 districts.

The drought affected 132,259 rai of farmland and some 1,450 cattle.

So far, the drought caused damages worth Bt59.9 million.

Declaring the disaster zones would permit the provincial administration to urgently allocate emergency fund to help affected villagers.

Witthaya said Nan Governor Pongsak Wongsamer had allocated Bt50 million from the provincial emergency fund to all district chiefs for helping affected villagers.

He said the provincial administration set up 16 drought alleviation centres - one in each district and another at the provincial seat.

The centres would be in charge of surveying and repairing water storage facilities and would be on standby to help affected villagers.

The provincial administration will cooperate with the Nan Provincial Army and the Nan office of the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department to deploy water tanks to help the affected villagers.