Cement weirs best way of tackling drought: Pheu Thai
Pheu Thai Party on Monday unveiled its agricultural strategy to combat drought caused by the impact of El Niño, with a focus on building concrete weirs to collect rainwater and allow the ground to absorb it.
A weir is a small barrier built across a stream or river to control and raise the water level slightly on the upstream side. A weir generally allows the water to flow over the crest (top) or sometimes underneath some sections.
These weirs help increase groundwater that can be released back into rivers and waterways, keeping farmlands irrigated during drought conditions, said Wisut Chainarun, Pheu Thai’s party list MP and head of agricultural strategy.
Wisut added that India’s ban on exports of non-basmati white rice provided a good opportunity to Thai rice farmers noting that since India, the world’s no.1 rice exporter, announced the ban in July, the price of Thai rice on the global market has increased by US$ 100-145 per tonne.
He said that the key to ensure adequate water supply to rice paddy is underground water, especially during the drought caused by El Niño phenomenon.
El Niño is triggered by a rise in surface temperatures of the eastern Pacific Ocean, leading to a phase of planet warming. The natural phenomenon usually occurs every two to seven years and brings reduced rainfall in Southeast Asia and southern Australia.
“Concrete weirs, which are essentially a small-scale dam, are cheap to build,” he pointed out. “A weir that’s 20 metres wide can be built in a few days for less than 100,000 baht.”
After building weirs across waterways in strategic locations, artificial rain will be seeded upstream to increase the water level in the weirs both above the crest and underground, he said.
Wisut said that besides building weirs, Pheu Thai’s agricultural strategy also includes building additional water gates at large rivers to ensure faster drainage and prevent water from flooding farmland.
Last week, he visited the Songkhram River in Sakon Nakhon province, which flows to the Mekong in Thailand’s northeastern region.
“This 400 km. river should have at least 30 water gates, but it has just two,” he said.
“It’s high time we used preemptive measures against drought and floods instead of just solving problems,” Wisut said. “Pheu Thai has conducted extensive studies to come up with these plans, which can be implemented as soon as the party leads the new government.”
