2m rai marked out to hold flood water this year

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2m rai marked out to hold flood water this year

Piyanart Srivalo
The Nation February 1, 2012

Two million rai in provinces from Phitsanulok to Suphan Buri will be used to store flood water so Bangkok and its adjacent provinces are not hit by devastating floods like they were last year.
Anond Snidvongs, a member of the Strategic Committee for Water Resources Management, said after he met with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who is preparing to visit provinces in the North and Central regions from February 13 to 17 to work on water-management plans.

Yingluck's first stop will be the Sirikit Dam in Uttaradit before she heads for Phitsanulok, Chai Nat, Sing Buri, Ayutthaya and Pathum Thani.

Anond said the 2 million rai will be divided into two groups, one in the basin of the Yom and Nan rivers in Phitsanulok, Phichit and Nakhon Sawan and another that would cover Ayutthaya's Bang Ban and Sena districts as well as Suphan Buri's Song Phi Nong district.

If this pilot project works well in controlling floods, then the areas would be expanded.

Meanwhile, after attending yesterday's Cabinet meeting, Yingluck told reporters she had ordered the Royal Irrigation Department to release water from dams regularly.

Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Yongyuth Wichaidit has been given the job of working with Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to ensure that canals into which the water will be released are clean and not congested. She said everything should be in place before the rainy season arrives and that Science and Technology Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi would be in charge of disaster warning.

In answer to reporters' questions about what would be done with the drained water, Yingluck explained that these were just shortterm measures to deal with the upcoming rainy season. As a longterm measure, sever