7 Nov 2023 at 4 : 11 PUBLISHED
Somsak Thepsutin, the deputy prime minister, wants to transform the Office of National Water Resources ( ONWR ) into a ministry of water resources.
During his opening remarks at the Communication Integration Seminar on Water Management Plans on Monday, he made the request public.
It was held to talk about how to deal with the El Nino climate phenomenon this year.
Mr. Somsak served as the seminar’s chair and joined ONWR secretary-general Surasee Kittimonthon as well as staff from related industries.
Mr. Somsak claimed that the idea to turn the ONWR into a government came up after he spoke with the chair of the National Water Resource Committee about how crucial water management was to the country.
” The issue of water management should be addressed as a whole, as it could have negative effects on the country in many ways ,” he said.
According to Mr. Somsak, the government has given ocean asset management priority in a way that has improved the balance of water use across the country.
Experts predict that some regions will experience a larger rainfall crisis this time, particularly for those in need of fluids for agricultural purposes. They claimed that over the next two years, the El Nino phenomenon’s effects did intensify, leading to this. The country had enough water for this year, according to Mr. Somsak, as more storms have been observed at the end of this gloomy season and, when combined with water stored in reservoirs, have caused dams to store up to at least 70 % of their capacity.
However, Mr. Somsak claimed that Srettha Thavisin, the prime minister, was also worried about the water situation as a whole because it might have an impact on some industries’ operations.
He even went to a water management exhibition, and he suggested building source barriers to help reduce flood in some areas during the Department of National Parks’ Wildlife and Plant Conservation display.