A severe drought which dropped water levels at a dam in Thailand has revealed a Buddhist temple which was submerged when the dam was built 20 years ago. Ruins of 700 houses have also been found there.
The temple, known as Wat Nong Bua Yai, is situated in Lopburi Province. The temple has a headless statue of Buddha and last week, the ground around the statue was covered with dead fish which perished when the water levels drastically dropped. The statue is 13 feet tall, Reuters reports.
However, the circumstances which made the temple visible was not good since the water levels in the reservoir had fallen to a historic low of just 3 per cent of the reservoir's capacity.
"The temple is normally covered by water. In the rainy season, you don't see anything," Somchai Ornchawiang, a 67-year-old retired teacher was quoted as saying by Reuters. He had visited the temple and said that the matter if the hour is the drought which is affecting farm life.
The water from the reservoir usually irrigates around 1.3 million acres, i.e. 526,000 hectares of farmland but the current volume of water is only enough for 3000 acres or 1,214 hectares of land. Previously the reservoir could irrigate four provinces and now, it has come down to one.
While the temple had made an appearance in 2015 when there was a drought, but localities are saying that they have never seen a drought of this intensity in more than 50 years.
I've never seen such a drought in 50 years. This is supposed to be the wet season," said Kattaya Oon-klom, 54, a farmer in the province of Nakhon Phanom was quoted as saying by Buddhist Door.
