“Thailand shouldn’t have water problems” – a personal view

[webfact]

“Thailand shouldn’t have water problems” – a personal view

By The Thaiger

 

 

OPINION

 

Post from a concerned Phuket resident who is worried about the future of the island’s most precious resource, fresh water. Despite being surrounded by water, potable water supplies are in peril for the forthcoming high season with lower-than-usual rainfall and the dams still at historically-low levels at the time of publishing this story. The person has asked to be anonymous…

 

There is NO excuse not to have more catchment areas in the hills and government-owned areas around Phuket. There IS enough rain over the year for everyone, but with the increased growth and construction around Thailand, they have built more hotels and condos and villas which USE the water .

 

BUT they have NOT expanded and built more water storage catchments! Therefore the higher demand uses the available resources up faster.

 

The cheapest solution, by far, is NOT desalination or rainwater guttering everywhere (which could help of course), but simply build more catchments. Dig out more of the current water lakes/reservoirs or dam an area in the hills.

 

(Phuket already has hundreds of small lakes which are left over ‘holes’ from the tin mining which had been conducted around the island for four hundred years but ceased in 1975)

 

For the farmers in Thailand’s rural areas, more lake-holdings need to be dug to increase the amount of water stored in their areas.

 

For a country like Thailand to run out of water, when all that is needed is increased water storage, is unacceptable. Thailand HAS the rainfall annually, therefore it needs to be stored whenever it rains, whether that rainfall is late or early! Then connect the new catchments via large irrigation pipes to the existing catchment infrastructure which can then be opened on demand.

 

As for Phuket, specifically, with its building boom, build more water storage at the same time and add to the already overwhelmed inadequate storage and there should be no more problems.

 

An earlier story about Phuket’s looming water shortages HERE.

 

Story about Thailand’s current drought situation HERE.

 

Source: https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/environment/worst-drought-in-living-memory-thai-farmers-in-the-north

 

-- © Copyright The Thaiger 2019-07-17

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[Is this real]

Been saying this very thing for years.

[Phuketshrew]

Totally agree. It's the increased usage without planning for it. For example the area around BIS used to have just a few housing estates. Take a look now and it's a concrete jungle and they are still building like crazy. That's just one area, others are the same. Most of this recent development is fed by mains or "town" water - is it any wonder why the dams are empty? Looking at the lagoon at the bottom of our garden it's as full now as it usually is indicating that we ARE getting the rainfall. Thankfully we have the option of drawing water directly from the lagoon so our supply remains relatively unaffected.

[the guest]

Water table is getting lower and lower each year. In five years time (if this continues) you can whistle for water.

[arithai12]

10 hours ago, webfact said:

There IS enough rain over the year for everyone, but with the increased growth and construction around Thailand, they have built more hotels and condos and villas which USE the water .

if you want to criticize poor urban planning and the shame of the never-ending construction, I am all for it.

But the argument above doesn't make any sense. Either there IS enough water for everyone (from rain or otherwise), or there isn't.

The fact that they build more hotels and condos while the number of visitors remains the same (or decreasing actually as reported in all news) doesn't change anything. An empty room doesn't use water.

 

Or you assume that all the rooms are occupied and using water, and that it is the increasing number of tourists that is responsible for the lack of water. In this case, you contradict your premise: there ISN'T enough water for everyone.

 

[CGW]

You can dig as many holes as you like - but if you don't have the rainfall to fill them they are just empty holes, look how many reservoirs are currently very low, digging more is not going to do a lot of good.

Next "solution" from a concerned resident? 

[Is this real]

CGW.  Actually, making more and bigger reservoirs will help alleviate the problem.

 

Much of the heavy rains have no place to go except to runoff into the see.  If there were more "holes" it would have someplace to go and be stored.  They are called reservoirs, CGW. 

[RPCVguy]

2 hours ago, Is this real said:

CGW.  Actually, making more and bigger reservoirs will help alleviate the problem.

 

Much of the heavy rains have no place to go except to runoff into the see.  If there were more "holes" it would have someplace to go and be stored.  They are called reservoirs, CGW. 

Nope! Short term thinking. Weather extremes of a warmer planet won't be satisfied by digging more and bigger holes. I just responded to this same topic at

 

[Valentine]

I understand the old tin mine "holes" have heavy metals in their water.

[Old Croc]

9 hours ago, CGW said:

You can dig as many holes as you like - but if you don't have the rainfall to fill them they are just empty holes, look how many reservoirs are currently very low, digging more is not going to do a lot of good.

Next "solution" from a concerned resident? 

A simplistic view. 

Despite current drought conditions (before this current drenching set in) Phuket does have an annual rainfall of about 2500mm. Storing this runoff in extra reservoirs would get the Province through the drought periods.

Drawing from more sources (less taken from each) means none of them will get that low again!

[Old Croc]

13 hours ago, the guest said:

Water table is getting lower and lower each year. In five years time (if this continues) you can whistle for water.

Those of us with wells might have a bigger problem in the future.

Which is why the water authorities need to extract the digit, store more water and extend the supply lines to cover the whole island.

[Old Croc]

A report on Phuket water resources published by the UN:

 

https://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/1.2 Phuket water and wastewater plans.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 18, 2019 by Old Croc

[CGW]

7 hours ago, Is this real said:

CGW.  Actually, making more and bigger reservoirs will help alleviate the problem.

Much of the heavy rains have no place to go except to runoff into the see.  If there were more "holes" it would have someplace to go and be stored.  They are called reservoirs, CGW. 

Yes, thank you for sharing your insight and wisdom, I can accept it would be beneficial in the few areas in Thailand where the water runs off to the sea.

OP also states "For the farmers in Thailand’s rural areas, more lake-holdings need to be dug to increase the amount of water stored in their areas." tell the farmers in the NE that they need to dig more reservoirs, current reservoirs are empty now, there is no runoff to the sea, thus they are called empty reservoirs ???? 

[sawadee1947]

23 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand shouldn’t

Oh dear, you can't enumerate how many SHOULDN'T there are. 

Same as many WHYs. 

It's not a developed country. Fact. 

 

[natway09]

The lack of planning happens everywhere.

Take Perth Australia for example ,,, very short on potable water

Sir Charles Court suggested many years ago that they use prison labour to build a pipeline 

from Lake Argyle (more freshwater than the size of Sydney Harbour )

Never happened through lack of vision & a committee rather than a Premier's directive

[Isaan sailor]

Let me weigh in.  Water conservation, less unbridled development, more catch basins, and forest restoration can all help.  But economics will also play its part.  A grossly overpriced Baht will decimate the tourist industry—so at least you won’t blame them for wasting water...

[Old Croc]

18 hours ago, natway09 said:

The lack of planning happens everywhere.

Take Perth Australia for example ,,, very short on potable water

Sir Charles Court suggested many years ago that they use prison labour to build a pipeline 

from Lake Argyle (more freshwater than the size of Sydney Harbour )

Never happened through lack of vision & a committee rather than a Premier's directive

I remember the indigenous MLA, Ernie Bridge, as Water Minister, was always pushing for that pipeline. He even wrote a song about it from memory. He was also a well known country singer.

That project was always a bit of a pipe dream (!) as the costs to construct a pipeline over 2000 kms through very rough desert country were prohibitive.

 

In contrast there is a huge reservoir only about 100km north of Phuket, and, as an alternative to building more catchment areas on the Island, a pipeline could bring all the water needed. All that is required is money from Bangkok. Perhaps they could use some of the huge amounts of money that always becomes available when fast trains to China are on the agenda.