The junta head said that the royal artificial rain programme is not capable of solving the drought crisis, but if people ‘do good deeds,’ it might rain, adding that the junta will solve the crisis by following the King’s teaching.
On Friday, 3 June 2016, Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the junta head and PM, said on the TV programme Returning Happiness to the People, a junta-produced TV programme which is broadcast nationwide every Friday evening, that the junta lacked the capacity to produce artificial rain, a project initiated by the King to solve droughts. He therefore asked people to do good deeds in order for it to rain, reported the Royal Thai Government.
“Yesterday, I asked farmers if the rain had come yet. They said it hasn’t and asked me for artificial rain. I said the airplanes [for producing artificial rain] are now incapable. There’s a lack of humidity. It can’t rain. We have to wait for a little while. But I think if we do a lot of good deeds, it might rain,” said Prayut.
Prayut added that apart from global climate change, the drought crisis was due to deforestation. The junta has been trying to revive forests by following His Majesty the King’s teaching -- growing perennial trees and building weirs.
Prayut Chan-o-cha talks to the moderator of the Returning Happiness to the People TV programme. It is a new policy of the junta to increase the programme’s popularity by having a moderator. Previously, the programme was just a 60-minute-long speech by the junta head. (Source: Royal Thai Government)