Water resources committee prepares Thailand for rainy season

 

FILE photo

 

BANGKOK, 26th June 2018 (NNT) - The government-appointed committee tasked to manage water resources is planning to help the country prepare for a possible deluge during the rainy season. 

The water resources committee held its first meeting of the year with 16 relevant agencies to discuss the general water situation. 

The committee then resolved to approve a plan to deal with a possible deluge during this year’s rainy season, which includes the setting up of 96 monitoring points to work with 44 telemetry stations. 

All information will be compiled with feeds from all water quality surveillance stations in the Chao Phraya, Tha Chin, Bang Pakong and Mae Along rivers, as well as data on mudslides from the Department of Water Resources and the Department of Mineral Resources. 

In addition, the committee plans to undertake travel to meet people in all four regions and hold seminars on the management of water resources for local residents from June to August.

 

-- nnt 2018-06-26

Free raincoats for all favorable voters!

...isn't that a bit late, at the end of June???

Agree since where i live it has been raining a lot since may.

 

45 minutes ago, webfact said:

The water resources committee held its first meeting of the year

How can this committee possibly function with the all-important Chairman absent while traipsing around Europe laying a trail of BS behind him.

His knowledge and expertise on dams, rivers, canals, locks and weirs is second to none. He has all but fixed Bangkok's drainage problems. The rest should of Thailand be easy for him. 

Let's hope he gets back before it rains again,

Fore give me if I am wrong, but yesterday wasn't these same 16 agencies talking about a lower than average season and droughts next year?

So them have to work for a few days.  I bet they don’t like that 

...with the rainy season supposedly already upon us...???

 

...their first meeting of the year...???

 

...to 'discuss the general water situation'....???

 

....can't make this stuff up...!!!

 

 

Why should they have met earlier?  After all, it hasn't started flooding yet!  ?

You would probably have to study the dam water levels map to understand the OP properly, I've posted it below. Click on a reservoir and see current capacity graphed against previous years, then perhaps the OP will make sense to you.

 

http://www.thaiwater.net/DATA/REPORT/php/rid_dam_1.php?lang=en

26 minutes ago, simoh1490 said:

then perhaps the OP will make sense to you

Perhaps you can elaborate on how this data relates to how the country is preparing for a possible deluge during the rainy season.

When a dam's situation is predicting capacity or overflow, what action will be taken by the Prayut government that has been different than in the past, ie., premature release water to flood downstream homes and farms versus creating water shortage for crops versus reduction in electrical production. I can't relate the data to current flood policy which seems somewhat elusive.

 

The Bhumibol dam in 2011experienced a well-monitored massive acceleration of water fill during the rainy season. https://icid2015.sciencesconf.org/66780/document

Compare to Bhumibol dam now in 2018 from your link.

 

So what's really going on, are they getting prepared before it actually floods - I always thought the brains trust in LOS only reacted post whatever the problem is. 

29 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

Perhaps you can elaborate on how this data relates to how the country is preparing for a possible deluge during the rainy season.

When a dam's situation is predicting capacity or overflow, what action will be taken by the Prayut government that has been different than in the past, ie., premature release water to flood downstream homes and farms versus creating water shortage for crops versus reduction in electrical production. I can't relate the data to current flood policy which seems somewhat elusive.

 

The Bhumibol dam in 2011experienced a well-monitored massive acceleration of water fill during the rainy season. https://icid2015.sciencesconf.org/66780/document

Compare to Bhumibol dam now in 2018 from your link.

 

Don't tell me you can't work out for yourself!

 

Posters were complaining that it's been raining for a while so having a planning meeting now is too late they cry. But if you look at the charts you'll see the flow line is still downwards, that's a combination of ground saturation levels preventing runoff and also water release to rice paddies in advance of planting the next crop. The very simple message is that now is the time to do the planning since previous year graphs show the water flow into dams has yet to begin in earnest. So what's the strategy to prevent flooding you ask, well, either use it and hope it keeps raining or don't use it and hope it stops raining, there aren't any other choices. 

2 minutes ago, simoh1490 said:

Don't tell me you can't work out for yourself!

 

Posters were complaining that it's been raining for a while so having a planning meeting now is too late they cry. But if you look at the charts you'll see the flow line is still downwards, that's a combination of ground saturation levels preventing runoff and also water release to rice paddies in advance of planting the next crop. The very simple message is that now is the time to do the planning since previous year graphs show the water flow into dams has yet to begin in earnest. So what's the strategy to prevent flooding you ask, well, either use it and hope it keeps raining or don't use it and hope it stops raining, there aren't any other choices. 

or consult the fortune teller, check for a few numbers on the local tree or sit on your hands and do bugger all -alternately, form a high-level committee to come to a decision. 

19 minutes ago, Artisi said:

or consult the fortune teller, check for a few numbers on the local tree or sit on your hands and do bugger all -alternately, form a high-level committee to come to a decision. 

So what's your expert plan to manage the situation, genius?

15 minutes ago, simoh1490 said:

So what's your expert plan to manage the situation, genius?

I outlined the standard plan - or did you miss the irony ?

1 hour ago, simoh1490 said:

either use it and hope it keeps raining or don't use it and hope it stops raining, there aren't any other choices.

I agree with your analysis of obvious choices but that's really my point - what's the new strategy?

The current regime implies that it has some new scientific approach decorated with lots of data points playing to the tune of electronic 'bells and whistles' that's going to better prepare Thailand than has past governments. But to date that appears mindless.

The fundamental problem may be that the military is more capable at planning transportation infrastructure given the way the military operates as a strategic mobile force than it is with the inherent transitory nature of water management infrastructure. The latter requires more use of social and environmental engineering that seems to confound the military.

5 hours ago, Srikcir said:

I agree with your analysis of obvious choices but that's really my point - what's the new strategy?

The current regime implies that it has some new scientific approach decorated with lots of data points playing to the tune of electronic 'bells and whistles' that's going to better prepare Thailand than has past governments. But to date that appears mindless.

The fundamental problem may be that the military is more capable at planning transportation infrastructure given the way the military operates as a strategic mobile force than it is with the inherent transitory nature of water management infrastructure. The latter requires more use of social and environmental engineering that seems to confound the military.

I don't see where they say there's a new strategy, the only aspect that can possibly be new is a tweaking of the collection flow rate curves.

 

There isn't very much that anyone can do to help prevent flooding other than hope or to invest in significant water management infrastructure - rain will come or it won't and options to manage the excess if it rains hard are very limited. It's all a question of luck, good or bad, although the monkey cheeks idea was a good one but to be reliable needs more dedicated land to manage overflows.

The flow into the big dams may not have increased much yet - but in most of Isaan it has been raining regularly ever since Songkran. Our ponds are full, over one month earlier than last year, which was 2 months earlier than the year before. As soon as the heavy rain starts, it has only one place to go - downstream. The committee probably scheduled this meeting last year, as the start of the rainy season is usually July. But nobody has thought that the unusually heavy rains for the last 2 months were important - complacency at it's best.

 

Now Isaan isn't high on the committees list - the water doesn't flow to Bangkok and central Thailand so they do not care. But I'm sure that the rest of Thailand has seen more rain than normal. I await the planners response ..... or lack of it.

4 minutes ago, rickudon said:

The flow into the big dams may not have increased much yet - but in most of Isaan it has been raining regularly ever since Songkran. Our ponds are full, over one month earlier than last year, which was 2 months earlier than the year before. As soon as the heavy rain starts, it has only one place to go - downstream. The committee probably scheduled this meeting last year, as the start of the rainy season is usually July. But nobody has thought that the unusually heavy rains for the last 2 months were important - complacency at it's best.

 

Now Isaan isn't high on the committees list - the water doesn't flow to Bangkok and central Thailand so they do not care. But I'm sure that the rest of Thailand has seen more rain than normal. I await the planners response ..... or lack of it.

The reservoirs don't begin to fill until the ground is saturated, after that the excess water will run-off into the catchment areas. That process has only just now started so now is the time to start planning because they will have a fair idea of the timeframe and volumes involved given different scenario's. Your issan pond may well have filled up earlier this year but the catchment area surrounding the country's largest reservoir is in the North and that has only just now started to runoff.

13 hours ago, otherstuff1957 said:

Why should they have met earlier?  After all, it hasn't started flooding yet!  ?

You've not been to Pattaya lately!  

On 6/27/2018 at 7:11 AM, mikebell said:

You've not been to Pattaya lately!  

The reservoirs near Pattaya serve only the immediate area whereas other large more strategically placed reservoirs supply large parts of the entire country.