Chao Phraya River Basin flood situation ‘to be over by November’

[rooster59]

Chao Phraya River Basin flood situation ‘to be over by November’

By The Nation

 

Water overflows from Yom River floods many communities in Phitsanulok's Sam Ngam District on Saturday.

 

The flood situation in the Chao Phraya River basin will improve by November, the Royal Irrigation Department (RID) assured yesterday.

 

However, there were several reports of the people’s ongoing struggle for survival amid the prolonged flooding in the Chi River Basin in the Northeast and Yom River in the North.

 

RID deputy director-general Thongplew Kongchan revealed that the flood situation in the Chao Phraya River Basin has been improving, and the water level in the upper reaches of the river basin had already decreased.

 

Thongplew stated that as there was heavy rain in Tak and Kamphaeng Phet provinces in recent days, resulting in the swollen Ping River transferring water into the Chao Phraya River, the flood situation downstream aggravated.

 

Water level on the Ping River in Nakhon Sawan province’s Banphot Phisai district has already decreased to 1,301 cubic metres per second from the highest this year on Friday of 1,330 cubic metres per second.

 

He expected that the highest level of water in Chao Phraya River will reach the Chao Phraya Dam in Chainat province between today and Tuesday, which will increase the water level in Chao Phraya River by another 25 centimetres.

 

However, water discharge from the Chao Phraya Dam will be maintained at 2,598 cubic metres per second so as to relieve the flood problem downstream.

 

“People along Chao Phraya River do not have to be concerned about further flooding, as the RID has many measures to manage the water in the Chao Phraya River and mitigate the flood situation, for instance by diverting the water to tributaries on both sides of the river and store the water in flood retention fields,” Thongplew said.

 

He assured that the flood situation in the Chao Phraya River Basin would be over within November, if there were no more rains.

 

Jitkasem Nirojthanarat, mayor of Nakhon Sawan town, said there was no flood yet but authorities were closely monitoring the Chao Phraya River, which could overflow due to more water flowing in from the northern provinces. Residents have been urged to follow public announcements and move to a higher ground.

 

Meanwhile, residents of Mahasarakam province are bracing for an overflow of the Chi River as the Ubolrat Dam has been releasing 55 million cubic metres of water downstream every day.

 

Mongkol Angpanya, president of the Kerng Subdistrict Administrative Organisation in Mahasarakam, said 19,631 rai of farmland and 92 houses have been damaged by floods.

 

In nearby Nongbua Lampu, residents have had to use sandbags as a flood barrier around the roads near the Ubolrat Dam, while officials said more water from northern provinces was heading downstream towards the dam in Khon Kaen province where the water level is near its maximum capacity.

 

So far, more than 3,000 sandbags have been used as a barrier to prevent floods around vulnerable villages. Sunthorn Daengchaiphumi, a hydropower official of the Ubolrat Dam, said 55 million cubic metres of water have to be released downstream due to additional water flowing down from northern provinces.

 

In Phichit province, about 50 houses have been flooded by the Yom River overflowing, which has also affected Sukothai and other northern provinces, while the water level in Nakhon Sawan in the central region where water from the North converges downstream, has been rising steadily affecting residents on the riverbanks.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30329838

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-10-21

[barrywhite]

...................................................2018!

[Thailand]

If the rain stops the flooding will recede,read my lips!

[Crossy]

5 minutes ago, Thailand said:

If the rain stops the flooding will recede,read my lips!

Unfortunately it's been peeing down all night here in Chiang Rak

 

 

[wayned]

What year?  That's what they said when my house in Bangkok had 172cm of water and muck in it in2011.

[connda]

.....and quickly forgotten until next year's flooding.  Rinse, repeat.....TIT.  

[vukovar77]

34 minutes ago, connda said:

.....and quickly forgotten until next year's flooding.  Rinse, repeat.....TIT.  

Why surprise?You could  know that BKK is likely to be flooded every few years.

[Thailand]

ChiangMai forecast,one of then anyway.

 

Sun

31°

23°

Mon

29°

23°

Tue

28°

22°

Wed

30°

22°

Thu

31°

22°

Fri

31°

22°

Sat

31°

21°

Sun

31°

21°

[Bullie]

I don't want to brag, but when the same thing started happening in the Netherlands a decade ago (extreme unexpected water heights in the rivers that flow through our country due to climate change) we decided to fix the situation by deepening the rivers, giving the rivers more room to expand in designated areas and dug overflow basins -which, by the way, really come in handy in the drier periods of the year: the droughts are also becoming more  extreme.

Project took about 5 years, and will now keep us safe for the next 25 years. But that's just us.

The smarter alternative, the unfathomable " Thai way" , is of course to just sit on your hands, do nothing, and sagely predict that

" the rains will go away and then the water will go down".

Verily, there is no end to this Asian wisdom.

[Crossy]

Meanwhile, the surge from Ayutthaya has arrived, river has risen by 30cm in the last 6 hours.

 

Most of the village is now flooded.

 

We are 30cm from having water in the house. Sandbags being positioned.

 

[CGW]

We were at Udonrat reservoir yesterday, it is around ~20% over maximum capacity, they are emptying it as fast as they are able but going to take weeks, so a lot more water going to be causing flooding down the country. We tried to get some food from one of the many vendors that operate around the reservoir, unfortunately, though they are still open they are all somewhat submerged! not the ideal environment to have a relaxing meal!

[coulson]

In other words flooding will subside at the end of the rainy season. 

[Thailand]

1 hour ago, Crossy said:

Meanwhile, the surge from Ayutthaya has arrived, river has risen by 30cm in the last 6 hours.

 

Most of the village is now flooded.

 

We are 30cm from having water in the house. Sandbags being positioned.

 

Good luck!

[Dap]

So everyone in flood prone areas, just suck it up

til then, eh?

[Kasset Tak]

This is one of the reasons why traditionally houses in Thailand were built on stilts. And as no one has learned how to control the weather...........

[DavisH]

34 minutes ago, Kasset Tak said:

This is one of the reasons why traditionally houses in Thailand were built on stilts. And as no one has learned how to control the weather...........

Many houses in flood prone areas are still built on stilts for this reason. 

[thaiguzzi]

6 hours ago, Dap said:

So everyone in flood prone areas, just suck it up

til then, eh?

Yep. People in power only worry about BKK. They don't give a rat's arse about the rest of the country...

[katana]

The Dutch have a tradition of several centuries of successful flood management.
In the 17th century, the Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden introduced Dutch land reclamation methods to England. Commissioned by the Crown to drain Hatfield Chase in the Isle of Axholme, Lincolnshire, Vermuyden was knighted in 1629 for his work and became an English citizen in 1633.
In the 1650s, he directed major projects to drain The Fens of East Anglia.
The Thais should call on the Dutch for some expertise here and sort it out once and for all, although unfortunately I can't really see this happening.

[newatthis]

17 hours ago, Crossy said:

Meanwhile, the surge from Ayutthaya has arrived, river has risen by 30cm in the last 6 hours.

 

Most of the village is now flooded.

 

We are 30cm from having water in the house. Sandbags being positioned.

 

All the best with that, Crossy. I live just outside Ayutthaya and water in the canal has crossed our road. It is about 7" deep in the front yard and slowly rising. We're on stilts,, but sadly there will be a lot more coming your way. Take care, cobber.

[Crossy]

6 minutes ago, newatthis said:

All the best with that, Crossy. I live just outside Ayutthaya and water in the canal has crossed our road. It is about 7" deep in the front yard and slowly rising. We're on stilts,, but sadly there will be a lot more coming your way. Take care, cobber.

Cheers @newatthis (for the goodwill not the water). Level is well down this morning, a good 40cm on yesterday's peak probably as a result of the low spring tide last night, unfortunately that means there's a spring high on its way

 

We currently have about 60cm of freeboard, precious little when it's usually more like 2m.

 

[Crossy]

Madam just disappeared in the back of the village shop owner's pickup along with about 20 others.

 

She returned with our flood relief package, allocated by address (we also got 100 sandbags and a truck load of sand).

 

 

We are not flooded (at least not yet), nor are we poor so the contents will be distributed to those more needy than we are.

 

[Dap]

On 10/22/2017 at 8:41 PM, thaiguzzi said:

Yep. People in power only worry about BKK. They don't give a rat's arse about the rest of the country...

Too true 

[newatthis]

^^^

Interesting you say that, because there was an article in the other English newspaper stating that more water was being discharged from the dams, but it was being controlled so that Bangkok would not be flooded. However, other provinces will be affected.

[robblok]

39 minutes ago, newatthis said:

^^^

Interesting you say that, because there was an article in the other English newspaper stating that more water was being discharged from the dams, but it was being controlled so that Bangkok would not be flooded. However, other provinces will be affected.

Does not sound to me that they are protecting BKK then, because other provinces are affected if they drain more other provinces will be affected even more before BKK gets affected. 

[robblok]

On 23-10-2017 at 4:04 PM, Crossy said:

Madam just disappeared in the back of the village shop owner's pickup along with about 20 others.

 

She returned with our flood relief package, allocated by address (we also got 100 sandbags and a truck load of sand).

 

 

We are not flooded (at least not yet), nor are we poor so the contents will be distributed to those more needy than we are.

 

Keep me informed Crossy as your a good yardstick for what i can expect. So far been cruising on the bike to previous trouble spots (2011) and nothing so far.  I think I will be dry this year. 

[Crossy]

@robblok will do, I think you'll be fine as you are a pretty long way from the river and (despite what others say) much has been done since 2011 to mitigate the massive flooding we had then.

 

For example, our road has been raised by 60cm or so and also had an 80cm concrete wall placed on the river side to form a better flood barrier for the rice and expressway on the far side.

 

Sadly we are on the river side of the road so it's not going to help us other than providing somewhere dry to park the car.

[robblok]

2 minutes ago, Crossy said:

@robblok will do, I think you'll be fine as you are a pretty long way from the river and (despite what others say) much has been done since 2011 to mitigate the massive flooding we had then.

 

For example, our road has been raised by 60cm or so and also had an 80cm concrete wall placed on the river side to form a better flood barrier for the rice and expressway on the far side.

 

Sadly we are on the river side of the road so it's not going to help us other than providing somewhere dry to park the car.

I was one of those people who said nothing much has been done. Maybe they just did not advertise it as much. They did build a big sluice near our home to control water flow. I also have seen them work on drainage and there are more pumps. 

 

I hope they will work on Prayut his plan of a canal near YTD to drain more water, but i think it will be scrapped by the next government. Just like the junta scrapped most of YL her plans. (they were in the planning stage)

[Crossy]

I'm posting regular (ish) river level reports in this thread to keep them all in one place.

 

 

OK it's a bit of spare Shera board marked with a permanent marker but it's likely more accurate than anything the government puts out.

[boomerangutang]

From the horse's mouth:

 

'....to be over by November, .....or December, .....or.....  what the heck, the I get a large salary to make such predictions ....so might as well do my job of trying to paint as rosy a picture on brown floods.  

 

'To articulate, ....Same won't happen next year.  Or at least not as bad.  Unless we get even more rain.  Which we don't think we will, ....but we might, but probably not.  But you never know.......'

 

 

[YetAnother]

13 minutes ago, boomerangutang said:

From the horse's mouth:

 

'....to be over by November, .....or December, .....or.....  what the heck, the I get a large salary to make such predictions ....so might as well do my job of trying to paint as rosy a picture on brown floods.  

 

'To articulate, ....Same won't happen next year.  Or at least not as bad.  Unless we get even more rain.  Which we don't think we will, ....but we might, but probably not.  But you never know.......'

 

 

they are masters at contentless,irrational speech