Tank forerunner to more water aid

Press, 22 October 1980, Page 11

Tank forerunner to more water aid

NZPA Bangkok The handing over of a special rubberised waterstorage tank to a village in north-east Thailand may herald the start of /at $1 million-a-year water resources development aid project. - " , ... The tank has been given. tX‘ villagers by Dunlop Nevv Zealand, Ltd, as a good-will gesture connected to assistance work in the region , now being done by New .Zealand aid specialists. ‘ ; Three Government- offi-

cials from Wellington are due .to tour the ' area in alwut: three • weeks; Awith,<, Mfo Thai sociologists:.in x py bid-to settle soon a detail-? ed < development project \ likely, to continue over the next three to five years. The team will .be the • fourth from New Zealand ".

to have visited Changwat Chalyapf urn Province,. seventh largest of northeast Thailand, since 1978. Officials expect that its report will-quickly lead to the establishment of a. firm programme of work. ' Already a New Zealand Ministry of Works engineer, Mr Brian Warboys,

has spent two years in the area working . with villagers and students of Khon Kaen University to improve the area’s water supply. . ~ x As part of his work- Mr, •'Warboys .has developed a foot-operated pump \ foruse by villa o ers. Tn pump-' ing. water from rivers and storage ponds to crop . fields. The pump works bn

a see-saw principle, with .a villager' standing on a cr o s s-b oa r d shifting weight Lorn one. end to .the other. to. draw out the water, " ■ Officials ,in Bangkok 5 with , hardware-manufacturers in effort tb.,get' the pump ,manufac< ■ tiired for general sale or

aid distributibmwithin villages. . • ■ ' Mr - Warboys has also' written,., and had translated into Thai, an. advisory booklet explaining to students and villagers how. best to construct simple water-shortage weirs, with concrete siqh and the front of the dam designed to su". local conditions. American Peace Corps workers haye\ described, Mr Warboys’ \work as

ideally sue - J to the conditions of-the area.

A special ' report ■on water resources in the area, compiled by the office of water resources development, .‘at the faculty? of engineering, at Khon Kaen University, describes the north-east 1 area as' the poorest in Thailand. “The aim of a development programme should be to- get- effective distribution of water : from available reservoirs and

; reliable rivers while establishing small resource projects to meet basic village needs,” it says. : : ? Monsoon rains fall between mid May and midOctober, but there is ■usually little rain between October and mid-Eebruary. About 85 per cent, of the area’s- population is employed .in. agriculture . and the report says “there Js always a problem with water shortages.’’ . Construction of more small weirs, distribution of the foot pumps and establishment of greater numbers 'of .ponds for drinking. : water ' storage and - fish farming would make a ''considerable impact at village .level, officials say.