The Department of Disaster Mitigation and Prevention on Sunday announced drought disaster zones in 42 out of 77 provinces across Thailand.

The department's General Director Viboon Sanguanwong said more than 100,000 households in those provinces, most of whom are farmers, have been affected by the drought over the past month.

However, the department anticipated that the situation would improve by the end of this month as the cold air mass from China is expected to meet the warm air mass in Thailand and cause rain nationwide. Moreover, the country will enter into rainy season at the beginning of May, said Viboon.