RID: Water level in Chao Phraya River rising

BANGKOK, Oct 8 (TNA) -- The Royal Irrigation Department (RID) said that heavy downpours in the upper part of the country have caused more water to flow into the Chao Phraya River and in turn, increased the water level at areas at the end of the Chao Phraya dam. RID Deputy Director General Thongplaew Kongchan said the severe rainfalls in Kamphaeng Phet, Uthai Thani and Nakhon Sawan provinces in the past couple of days have hiked the water level in the Chao Phraya River. He said the RID has limit the flow of water into the Chao Phraya dam at a rate of less than 2,000 cubic metres per second, adding that the dam is seeing around 1,998 cubic metres of water passing through it per second. This has caused the water level at the downstream of dam to increase by 50-70 centimetres. Meanwhile, Mr Thongplaew mentioned that the continuous heavy downpours above the Pa Sak Chonlasit dam have increased the water level in the dam to 881 million cubic metres, or about 92 per cent of its full capacity, as of now the dam could only store 79 million cubic metres more of water before reaching its maximum capacity. He said if the discharging of water does not coincide with the amount of water flowing into the dam, this could cause the water in the dam to overflow and prompt for more release of excess water and could gravely affect communities situated at the end of the dam. The RID must now raise the discharge water rate from 40 million cubic metres to between 47.5-50 million cubic metres per day to keep the water from overflowing the dam until the rainy has passed. The department has also sent out a warning letter to Lop Buri, Saraburi, and Ayutthaya provinces, as well as the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, along with concerned agencies to alert resident living along both sides of the Pa Sak River to be aware of floods and to closely monitor the situation. (TNA)