BANGKOK, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Thai government on Friday launched additional rain-making operations in the Northern, Northeastern and Central regions to tackle serious droughts.
Six aircraft from the Air Force and Army division joined the Department of Rain-making and Agricultural Aviation (DRAA)'s fleet in carrying out the cloud-seeding operations in the air.
DRAA Director-General Surasee Kittimonthon said that the cloud-seeding operations will carry out its artificial rain duties until the end of September, to fight what he labelled as the "worst drought in many years."
"Even though the drought had slightly eased in some areas due to monsoon rains in the past several days, almost 200 reservoirs, including 19 major reservoirs, are running very low and are in urgent need of replenishment by means of artificial rain-making, so that there will be sufficient water for consumption to last through the current and following seasons," Surasee said.
He also said all 11 rain-making units around the country will fly missions whenever the climate is right, because the window of opportunity is limited as the wet season will soon be over.
The Thai cabinet last month approved a 30 million baht (971,310 U.S. dollars) fund for the mission to ease drought in the three regions.
