Disasters and emergency response
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 ...
Up to 30 feared dead in two Hpakant landslips
Deadly landslips have brought more death to Kachin State as two separate collapses in one day at the Hpakant jade mines claimed an unknown number of victims. Local residents fear as many as 30 people may have lost their lives. The first of the two landslides ...
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 ...
Five Myanmar cities better equipped to monitor earthquakes
As a country lodged on some of the most seismically active faults during what scientists suggest may be a particularly active period, Myanmar is boosting its ability to predict earthquakes. New digital seismographs will be set up in five cities across the country by the end ...
Snow envelops northern Vietnam as weekend temperatures plummet
Many northern provinces have been experiencing bitter cold, while snow has been falling heavily in many areas across the northern mountainous region due to a strong cold spell that has enveloped almost half of the country since 23 January. Snow blanketed Sa Pa in the northern ...
Disaster-prone year uses fraction of possible emergency fund
In a year of disastrous floods, the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation accounted for more than 62 percent of total emergency expenditure, parliament heard on 21 January. Yet barely over one-tenth of the K100 billion emergency fund under the president’s control was utilised. The President’s Office ...
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 ...
