Water discharge rates from the four main dams to the Central Plains will be reduced to reserve water for consumption throughout the rainy season but a crisis in the next dry season remains.
Bhumibol, Sirikit, Kaew Noi Bam Roong Dan, and Pa Sak Jolasid dams are discharging altogether 28 million cubic metres per day, Thongplew Kongjun, director of the Office of Water Management and Hydrology, Royal Irrigation Department, said in a radio interview Tuesday morning.
"At that rate, usable water will be available until Aug 3," he said.
Therefore, the department will have to further reduce the discharges from Wednesday onward to reserve water for consumption until Aug 17, when rains are likely, he said.
"If it still doesn't rain by then, it will be a bad scenario for the nation," Mr Tongplew said.
Starting Wednesday, discharges at the Bhumibol dam in Tak province and the Sirikit dam in Uttaradit province will drop by 1 million cu/m per day. The rate at the Bhumibol dam will decrease from 8 million cu/m to 5 million cu/m and that at the Sirikit dam from 17 million cu/m to 11 million cu/m.
The reduction at the Kaew Noi Bam Roong Dan dam in Phitsanulok province and the Pa Sak Jolasid dam in Lop Buri province would start in August. Discharges would drop from 1.7 million cu/m a day at Kaew Noi Bam Roong Dan and 1.3 million cu/m at Pa Sak Jolasid to 1 million cu/m each.
Authorities would also have to find solutions for the next dry season from this November to April next year, Mr Thongplew said.