CityNews – A working committee has been set up in Chiang Mai under the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation in the Northern Province to warn and assist should there be any emergencies in the upcoming months.
There are fears of landslides and floods should there be heavy rains, which is anticipated by the Meteorological Department.
The province has over 200 warning stations for such emergencies using constant updates on rainfall to gauge any potential disasters. There are also 5,000 volunteer available on call for any crisis.
Government authorities, working alongside local authorities and community groups have also been working steadily on clearing waterways of any detritus, said the committee with most of the cleared out water hyacinth being used as fertiliser.
The Meteorological Department has also said that there will be a south western wind coming up from the Andaman Sea throughout the month, leading to moderate rainfall. There will be an increase of rain between the 17th-19th June and from now until early July it is likely to rain 40-60% of the time. The rainfall will decrease for a while after that, which will mean that farmers may need some of the stored water for irrigation. Currently Mae Guang Dam is at 16% capacity and Mae Ngad at 33% and although the rainy season this year is expected to return to previous years’ normal levels (unlike the past two years’ drought), the authorities say that they are managing water resources very carefully.