Drought affects millions in Thailand

Sun Apr 1, 3:23 AM ET

Scorching weather and lack of rain has left more than eight million people in Thailand, the world’s top rice exporter, suffering a drought that is ruining their farmland, officials said Sunday.

The drought has hit 58 of Thailand’s 76 provinces, the government department responsible for disaster prevention and management said in a statement.

Most of them are in the north of the country, a region only just recovering from a choking haze caused by forest fires.

The department said about 114,000 rai (45,000 acres) of farmland had been affected, along with 8.23 million people.

Authorities said water pumps were being provided to help local farmers and residents.

The meteorological department warned that Thailand’s northern, northeastern, eastern and central provinces including Bangkok would face more hot weather in the next 24 hours.

Northern provinces, including tourism hotspots Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son, were engulfed in a haze last month caused by slash-and-burn farming and forest fires coupled with unusual weather patterns and lack of rain.

Last year, flooding inundated 47 Thai provinces, killing 207 people and causing at least 305.3 million baht (8.1 million dollars) in damage, mostly in the north of the kingdom

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