The Executive Directive of this spring (2022/14) asks the large users of water to prepare dry-year plans, and limits new rice paddies in the lower Chu. I am not an official, and I will say only what an old man would say over tea.
The directive is about water, and water is the most important thing. Nobody who has watched a canal fall in July can argue. For new paddies, the limit is reasonable: we cannot ask the river for what it does not have. Existing fields are not touched, and the farmers I know have plans for their own channels.
But I also know that rice is not only a crop. It is the reason we are here. In 1938 a teacher with a ruler decided a field was worth the water. I hope the officials who decide today have a ruler too, and a notebook where they write "Wait."
I will not write more about this. I will write about tomatoes.
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