BANGKOK, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- As the Northern part of Thailand is currently facing heavy haze from bush fire which broke out last week, coupled with the current seasonal drought, Thai authorities on Monday said the Royal Irrigation Department (RID) is quickly sourcing water to help the bushfire and drought victims in Chiang Mai, Lampang and Tak provinces.
"I have instructed irrigation officials in the northern province to find sources of water to deal with drought and forest fires which are still escalating," said Thongplew Kongjun, director-general of RID, a division under the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, "We will need to spray water in the air to increase humidity, as well as to spray water from aircrafts to reduce the smog."
Thongplew said in Chiang Mai, there are currently 12 medium and large-sized reservoirs and 117 small ponds with 43 percent of water filled up.
He also said that there is also water in ponds at military camps reserved for tap water production.
Thongplew said the RID is looking into building two more medium-scaled reservoirs and new water-pumping stations to serve the expansion of farmland in the future.
Thailand is currently facing its seasonal drought in which the government estimates, will end in May or June.
Forest fires in North Thailand were expanding and mostly covered mountains where fire control was difficult.
