13 Thai provinces still facing drought

BANGKOK, July 5 (TNA) – A severe drought situation has now eased in 27 provinces, but leaving people in 13 provinces facing shortage of water, said Chatchai Promlert, director-general of Thailand’s Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department. He said the 13 provinces are mostly in the North and Northeast. Measures to resolve the acute shortage of water have been mapped out, said Chatchai, adding that concerned government agencies have been assigned to cooperate with the army in distributing water for consumption, agriculture purpose, digging for artesian water and conducting royal rain-making operation. Chatchai said his department has closely monitored weather forecast by the state-run Meteorological Department and found that a low pressure which is now covering the Gulf of Tonkin has brought rain in the upper Northeast and the North. Rain on the western side of the North, Central and the South is also on the increase, he said. Small trawlers, however, should stay ashore from today until Wednesday due to high waves in the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand. (TNA)