Drainage tests inundate rice field in Thailand’s old capital

[News Bandit]

AYUTTHAYA, Sept 5 – More than 1,000 rai of paddy field in this 'rice bowl' province, 76km north of Bangkok, was flooded Wednesday as the water level rose one metre higher than the Chao Phraya river, the lifeline of the central plains.

The abrupt flooding was apparently a result of the government’s three-day drainage tests for western and eastern Bangkok which started Wednesday.

Suparerk Klankla, an official of Ayutthaya’s Bangpa-in district, said farmers had to urgently harvest paddy in their flooded rice fields, or it would be severely damaged.

It was reported that water was released into the Rapipat irrigation canal from the Rama VI Dam.

The Rapipat canal on the eastern side of the river is a pass-through for water from the North to Bangkok. Water level in the canal was reportedly higher than usual Wednesday.

Water in the Bangpa-in swamp could not be drained, consequently it overflowed into nearby farmers’ paddy fields, the local government civil servant said.

Sixty-year-old Manee Ruenbutr, who owns more than 30 rai of double-crop paddy field, said the flood was without warning, and affected many farmers in the area. (MCOT online news) 

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