As water dries up, fears swell
Desperate Thai farmers turn to spirits to end crippling drought
BAN LUEAM: Under the scorching sun, dozens of Thai villagers, dressed in flowery shirts and traditional costumes, parade a white cat caged in a bamboo-woven basket door to door and let neighbours splash water on the unlucky feline while chanting an ancient tune: “Rain, rain, come pouring down. We barely had any this year. Without rain, our rice will die.”
It’s a desperate plea to the god of rain, in the belief it will hear the cat’s cry and answer the farmers’ prayers.
Thailand’s rainy season officially began in the last week of May, but it rained only once in the Ban Lueam district in northeastern Nakhon Ratchasima province.
It is one of more than 250 districts – or nearly 20% of the country – that have been declared emergency disaster zones as the prolonged drought becomes the worst in decades, its impact felt most acutely by farmers growing Thailand’s most important agricultural export: rice.
At the beginning of this month, the amount of usable water in major dams across the country – except in the west – dropped to below 10%, according to the Irrigation Department. The water level at Bhumibol Dam has dropped to its lowest point in 51 years.
In the capital Bangkok, the Metropolitan-Waterworks Authority has been slowing down tap water production since May.
The head of the authority, Gov Thanasak Watanathana, said without rains, the current water supply for daily consumption in Bangkok and its nearby provinces will last only 30 days. However, he said forecasters are expecting rains next month.
For rice farmers, it may already be too late.
The drought and critical water shortage in dams have prompted the Agriculture Ministry to ask farmers to hold off on planting their crops. The Office of Agricultural Economics estimated that the delay could cost farmers in Thailand’s central plains alone 60 billion baht (RM6.7bil) in potential losses.
“The real damage will be with those who have already planted but there’s not enough water. We have to look at how we can help them,” said Sompong Inthong, the permanent secretary at the Agriculture Ministry.
The Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation Department has sent a fleet of propeller aircraft on more than 3,000 flights since March to increase precipitation by cloud seeding, an artificial rainmaking technique spearheaded by King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
Despite the high rate of success, it did little to fill the dams.
According to The Thai Rice Exporters Association, at least three million tons of off-season rice has disappeared from the stock since the beginning of the year due to the drought.
The main concern, however, is the main farming cycle, which begins in May and is harvested as early as October.
“If there’s still little rain from now, it will make quite an impact on next year’s export figures,” said Chookiat Ophaswongse, the association’s honorary president.
Meteorologists from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Nasa say 2014 was the hottest year on record since 1880, when Earth’s average surface temperature has warmed by about 0.8°
C– a trend that is largely driven by the increase in carbon dioxide and other human emissions into the planet’s atmosphere. The majority of that warming has occurred in the past three decades.
In Ban Lueam, a drought-plagued rural district 340km northeast of Bangkok, several hundred farmers had no choice but to start growing their rice and hope for the rain.
Last week, Boonchan Thasunthorn, 58, finished plowing nearly 6.5ha of his rice farms using a crumbling 16-year-old manual tractor. He said he would rather take the risk of sowing the crops in the absence of rain than holding off until it was too late.
Boonchan’s village is outside the irrigation zone and the only access to natural water is the Chi River, which has nearly dried up.
“If the drought continues, it’s going to be tough for me. But I can’t just sit here and do nothing, or else I’ll starve,” he said, adding that he still owed 100,000 baht (RM11,230) to the Bank of Agriculture for the equipment and maintenance costs for his farms.
“This drought has hit me the hardest, but I don’t know what else to do. Once you’re a farmer, it’s hard to be something else.” — AP