Assistance to be offered to Thais affected by drought, floods

BANGKOK, July 15 (TNA) - Thai farmers affected by ongoing drought and locals in flood-hit southern Thai areas will soon both receive official assistance. Thai Permanent Secretary for Finance Rungson Sriworasat told journalists on Wednesday that his ministry will soon seek the Cabinet's approval of financial assistance to local farmers affected by current drought. Rungson said his ministry's Fiscal Policy Office (FPO) has proposed to give either 1,000 baht per rai of farmland to drought-affected farmers but the assistance will be capped at 15 rai per household, or 1,500 baht per rai equally to that offered last year. Rungson revealed that FPO is discussing the proposed options with Finance Minister Sommai Phasee before submitting the selected one to the Cabinet for further consideration and decision within this month. Under a proposed option, Rungson elaborated, the assistance for affected farmers will cost the government over 20 billion baht, comprising about 19 billion baht for 1.3 million rice-growing households and the rest for rubber growers’ households, and the financial support may decrease if drought is relieved. According to the senior official, if financial assistance would be offered to all Thai agriculturists, a total state budget of 66 billion baht was needed. On Tuesday, Thai Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Petipong Pungbun Na Ayudhya called on Thai people, including farmers and business operators, to conserve water, pointing out this year’s drought has effected more than 3.4 million rais of local farmlands (2.5 rais=1 acre) so far. The minister also urged local farmers in drought-affected and drought-prone areas to delay their crops to prevent losses due to a water shortage. The ministry's Royal Irrigation Department plans, in the meantime, to spend 160 million baht to hire people living in the Chao Phraya River Basin and 1.6 billion baht in other drought-affected areas nationwide to repair damaged irrigation structures and systems. Also on Tuesday, Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha told reporters that the Cabinet has decided, as a precaution in case there would be no downpours in the coming weeks, to reduce discharges from local dams to reserve water for nationwide consumption until August 2015. The prime minister stated that the Cabinet resolved to cut discharges from dams supplying water to the Chao Phraya River Basin from 28 million cubic meters to 18 million cubic meters per day from July 16 onwards and asked farmers in the Chao Phraya River Basin to stop pumping water into their farmlands for the time being, stressing that public cooperation is essential, especially from July 20 until early August. As several areas in the Thai South, including those in Trang, Satun, Ranong and Krabi Province, are flooded due to heavy downpours, local officials are inspecting affected areas and rendering assistance to those in need. (TNA)