Water pumps lift Thai rice

Business Asia, Oct 25, 1999

Thailand's rice industry is about to undergo substantial technological change courtesy of a new pump system supplied by The Weir Group.

The company, based in Gosford, has received orders for three pumpsets from the government of Thailand for use in the flooding of rice paddies and other agricultural land.

Traditionally, water lift from a river or irrigation canal was carded out by fixed pumps, with the number of pumps required being determined by the number and size of fields to be flooded.

Weir's new system is a fully contained pumpset perched on a portable chassis. The complete unit can be easily transported and operated by one person.

Weir project engineer Douglas Morton said the mobile pumpsets were a totally new concept in Australia.

"Having designed and manufactured these first three, we know that we can apply the same mobility technology to turbine pumps with flow rates of up to 4000 litres per second," he said.