Disasters
Drought
Water to be stored in 36 disused mines
Thailand’s Primary Industries and Mines Department is preparing 36 disused mines for water storage to help address the drought crisis. If the mines can be used as planned, their combined capacity will be 166 million cubic metres, said director-general Chat Hongtiamchant. He said his department found 36 ...
El Niño parches Asia Pacific, destroying crops and drying up water sources
Severe El Niño-linked drought has destroyed crops, killed farm animals and dried up water sources across East Asia and the Pacific, aid workers said, and UNICEF appealed for $62 million to assist children impacted by various crises in the region. Humanitarian agencies are monitoring and responding ...
Mekong diversion under way in Thailand
The Thai government’s planned diversion of billions of cubic metres of water from the Mekong River, described last week by a Thai Ministry of Water Resources representative as being as far as two years away, has already begun. The pumping, which is pulling water from the ...
Severest drought in 20 years hits Khon Kaen
Khon Kaen province is facing its severest water shortage in two decades, with Ubonrat Dam at only 27% of its holding capacity, according to the provincial fisheries office. Keep reading ...
Rice growers drilling wells in dry riverbed
Some rice farmers in Phitsanulok province are drilling wells in their dry riverbed to get around the Irrigation Department’s warning not to grow off-season crops due to the water shortage, insisting it’s the only livelihood they know. Keep reading ...
Water shortage 'will hit after Songkran'
Conserving water must be made an urgent national priority to cope with a water shortage crisis expected to hit Thailand after Songkran if precautions are not taken, a consultancy firm says. Water stocks in four major reservoirs which are the main sources of water in the Chao ...
El Nino likely to set new weather records: Experts
The impact of El Nino in 2016 will likely surpass last year’s record to become strongest ever in history, according to experts. Hoang Duc Cuong, Director of Vietnam’s National Centre for Hydro-Meteorology Forecasting, issued the forecast at a conference held late last week to review the national ...
Drought spurs call for home water savings
The Metropolitan Waterworks Authority (MWA) has urged households in the capital and its vicinity to reserve at least 60 litres of drinking water for the duration of the drought season until May next year. The reduction of Chao Phraya River water usage is due to the ...
Cambodian PM tells lenders to weigh drought
Prime Minister Hun Sen on 7 December called on lenders to go easy on farmers bedeviled by a fickle rainy season that has hurt production and incomes, though financial institutions quizzed yesterday had no plan yet in place to facilitate the request. This year’s powerful El Niño ...
Laos counts the cost of climate change: record floods, drought and landslides
Villagers in Namai, central Laos, are unanimous in saying that the greatest threat facing Namai now is natural disaster – in the form of cyclones, storms, floods and drought. Over the past 10 years, say village leaders, they have seen record floods, droughts and landslides, ...
