Five Khon Kaen districts declared drought zones

[webfact]

Five Khon Kaen districts declared drought zones

By The Nation

 

FILE photo

 

Khon Kaen Governor Somsak Jungtrakul has declared five districts drought disaster zones.
 

Somsak said on Friday there had been no rain for months in Pol, Nong Song Hong, Ban Had, Waeng Noi and Puay Noi districts.

 

Formally designating them as drought areas would speed assistance for anyone in need.

 

Somsak said farmers had been advised against planting second-crop rice because the water level at the Ubol Ratana Dam was too low to support irrigation.

 

He said the reservoir held 835.1 million cubic metres of water – about 34 per cent of its 2,431-million-cubic-metre capacity. Only about 20 per cent of that water is available for general use.

 

Somsak said the province would next week determine whether enough water remains for domestic use as drinking water. If not, other sources will have to be found.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30357747

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-11-02

[khwaibah]

6 minutes ago, webfact said:

 

Somsak said the province would next week determine whether enough water remains for domestic use as drinking water. If not, other sources will have to be found.

 

Ask the elitist of Bangkok as they have been forking isaan for ever.

[MartinL]

Strange. I live in Phon (Pol in this report) and I distinctly remember lots of rain storms over the last couple of months. It's been making our grass grow about a foot a week.

 

Having said that, our local lake is a few feet lower than usual for this time of year but that might be due to massive dredging and weed clearance over the rainy season.

 

[colinneil]

33 minutes ago, khwaibah said:

 

Ask the elitist of Bangkok as they have been forking isaan for ever.

What a crazy comment !!

What have the Bangkok elitists got to do will the drastic shortage of rainfall this year?

[owl sees all]

11 minutes ago, MartinL said:

Strange. I live in Phon (Pol in this report) and I distinctly remember lots of rain storms over the last couple of months. It's been making our grass grow about a foot a week.

 

Having said that, our local lake is a few feet lower than usual for this time of year but that might be due to massive dredging and weed clearance over the rainy season.

 

I live close and I agree with you. Our last decent rain was on September 16th. It has rained since but not enough to make any difference except good for the rice.

 

The wet season, as a whole, had less than usual rainfall. The water levels virtually everywhere are low and it's just the start of the dry season.

 

I can see big problems for farmers if this dry season is severe. 

[colinneil]

19 minutes ago, MartinL said:

Strange. I live in Phon (Pol in this report) and I distinctly remember lots of rain storms over the last couple of months. It's been making our grass grow about a foot a week.

 

Having said that, our local lake is a few feet lower than usual for this time of year but that might be due to massive dredging and weed clearance over the rainy season.

 

Well mate i live 30ks north of you, and the water situation here is desperate.

I have 1000 ltr storage tanks that are empty, normally at the beginning of november they are full.

Only had 1 heavy shower lasting about 30 minutes in nearly 5 weeks.

[roo860]

Well mate i live 30ks north of you, and the water situation here is desperate.
I have 1000 ltr storage tanks that are empty, normally at the beginning of november they are full.
Only had 1 heavy shower lasting about 30 minutes in nearly 5 weeks.

Bloody ell Col, you've only ad one shower in 5 weeks!!!!!
Need some deodorant????
[emoji106]

Sent from my SM-G920F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[anon2736434]

Yes its hard to see how maybe 2 months ago ubolratana lake was nearing capacity, now almost empty ? Personally and I think this applies to all water storage dams in thailand they are using capacity numbers from when they were originally built, they are not taking into account the loss of storage capacity due to the silting in of the lakes over the years, a major problem here with the sandy soil composition. It would be an eye opener for sure to do a depth survey of ubolratana and the other dams here im sure.  Silting in of water storage dams is a major problem worldwide so dont call me a thai basher please.

[nev]

I have a feeling ubolratana dam was opened to fill Bungkaennakon lake after the recent work on the lake, am I being skeptical ????

[CGW]

34 minutes ago, Notagain said:

Yes its hard to see how maybe 2 months ago ubolratana lake was nearing capacity, now almost empty ? Personally and I think this applies to all water storage dams in thailand they are using capacity numbers from when they were originally built, they are not taking into account the loss of storage capacity due to the silting in of the lakes over the years, a major problem here with the sandy soil composition. It would be an eye opener for sure to do a depth survey of ubolratana and the other dams here im sure.  Silting in of water storage dams is a major problem worldwide so dont call me a thai basher please.

As stated, although there has been a lot of rainy days this year, there has been little volume, see below:-

Lake has never been anywhere near full this year, despite misleading statements from the "government"

It will also lose the ability to produce electric for power, that is going to be a major revenue loss for someone!

 

Edited November 2, 2018 by CGW

[anon2736434]

3 minutes ago, nev said:

am I being skeptical ????

Not skeptical but just not realistic you could fill a hell of a lot of kannkorns before you even dented the supposed amount of water in ubolrat. Another major loss of water is the irrigation canal systems which havent been maintained since built drive along one and you can see everywhere large amounts of the concrete canal is just gone, let alone the bottom leakage, I think that is the reason on the east side of khon kaen good water everywhere at shallow depths, west side hardly any groundwater and most of lt too salty to use.

[anon2736434]

3 minutes ago, CGW said:

As stated, although there has been a lot of rainy days this year, there has been little volume, see below:-

Sorry little slow today but is that a graph of volume of the lake ? If it is I still say a depth survey needs to be done, something as easy as dredging the main canal of the lake would would increase water storage easily and quickly.

[CGW]

10 minutes ago, Notagain said:

Sorry little slow today but is that a graph of volume of the lake ? If it is I still say a depth survey needs to be done, something as easy as dredging the main canal of the lake would would increase water storage easily and quickly.

Yes, its a graph of the lake for past 3 years. All well and good dredging the lake and increase the capacity - But, there is still 66% usable space available that could be filled - if there was rain ???? 

[anon2736434]

1 hour ago, CGW said:

But, there is still 66% usable space available that could be filled

Not if that 66% is only say 1 meter in depth. Surface area does mean anything without depth.  Most of a dams water is in the main channel the farther the water spreads out the less capacity it will contribute to total storage capacity. 

[Lupatria]

I suspect a dozen of officials will be on a roadshow visiting the 5 districts soon, with vinyl boards to explain the 'government's' highly effective flood prevention measures, telling the farmers these programs will be in limbo in the future, if they vote for the wrong party in the 'election'.

[Ulic]

Somchai will plant the second crop as quickly as possible. There will be more than enough water for his crop if every other farmer doesn't plant a second crop.