The government will spend more on irrigation stations in Vientiane if the water level in the Mekong continues to fall, the Director General of the Vientiane Agriculture and Forestry Department (VAFD), Mr. Latsanivong Amarathithada, reported at a government meeting yesterday. The level of the river is still dropping but the decrease has slowed this month. The average rate of fall is now about one centimeter per day. Electricite du Laos, Vientiane’s water supplier Nampapa Nakhoneluang and the VAFD each reported on the effects of the low water levels. If water levels decrease by five or six centimeters per day, the government will buy pipes to bring water from the boats to the irrigation stations as well as electric cables for the pumps. Today the end of February, the rate fell from 10 to 5 centimetres per day, when the VAFD built boats and installed pumps on them in the middle of the river. The government has spent about 1.4 billion kip on installing the pumps on boats and making channels to bring water to the stations. The Vientiane water supplier, Nampapa Nakhoneluang, will start pumping water on boats in two days’ time. The company has three water tasks in Vientiane, at Kaoliew, Chinaimo and Dongmarkkhai, and they can usually produce about 160.000 cubic metres of water per day.
Source: Vientiane Times
