500 artesian wells to be drilled to tackle water shortage

By The Nation

 

Prawit Wongsuwan, Deputy Prime Minister

 

Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said he has ordered authorities to drill 500 artesian wells to help people nationwide amid a drought.

 

He made the statement after a cabinet meeting at Government House today (January 7). This is part of the measures to deal with the drought situation gripping many provinces.

 

“We have requested an emergency budget for drilling 500 artesian wells to tackle the drought situation and solve the problem of water shortage,” he said.

 

“We will start drilling the wells immediately on receiving the money. The operation is expected to start tomorrow [January 8].”

 

The operation is being carried out under cooperation between various agencies such as the Department of Water Resources, the Interior Ministry and the Army.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30380253

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-01-07

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7 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said he has ordered authorities to drill 500 artesian wells to help people nationwide amid a drought

Yep, now he really solved the problem! This is a rather textbook case of insanity. Drought is a problem because the gound water level is at a record low! 

 

What Idea does this mastermind get then? Oh yes! Let´s make 500 artesian wells and get rid of that little left of the ground water that actually still exist.

Great job Prawit! Your planet it very greatful, and will return your wonderful deed in a suitable way. 

Didn't they do this a few years back?

I am sure that they implementad a plan to drill xxx boreholes so that drought would not be a problem.

Cheaper to  dig  bluddy  big  holes like most farmers do anyway

Wonder how many bottles of water one of his watches could buy from 7/11 for a poor farmer

If they know there is going to be a water shortage they should start rationing it now . Turning off the supply now for a couple of hours a day would be a lot better than just letting it run out so there is no mains supply at all. This would also encourage people to be more aware of the problem and use it more carefully.

 

Still, this is Thailand and nothing sensible will be done until it is too late and then eventually the rains will come, the shortage will be forgotten and the problem will be flooding.

 

Thailand , the hub of water mismanagement .

Put our pond in back in March 50 meters square by 10 meters deep and it doing its job. Water table is only 3  meters down and all ponds in my area do not go dry. Isaan can use all those 500 wells will gladly take them.

 

12 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

Wonder how many bottles of water one of his watches could buy from 7/11 for a poor farmer

Is that him in life or a wax model from a museum?

500 more straws into the aquifer. They all have to be able to hook up to some pipeline too. 

Aaaaagh! Did he really say that? The water table in Phrae is lower than a snake with fallen arches and he want to drill more holes! Maybe time to retire methinks!

You have no other idea, do you? After the water on the surface has been used in abundance without any sense, it is the turn of the subterranean water, what do you plan to do next?

15 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

500 artesian wells to be drilled to tackle water shortage

I wonder if the aquifers are full or will they just drill dirt?

 

I certainly trust the homework has been done.

Interfering in underground water reserves in large quantities can have some pretty catastrophic

consequences. Just ask the Australians 

Yeah, deplete whatever is left of the ground water table. Knee&jerk.

The article specifically refers to artesian wells. These are deep bores in specific locations chosen geographically to access water which will come to the surface under its own pressure. Where are the chosen locations? A sign, a sign Oh Guru!

 

Why is he not following his leader's advice to the Bangkok population to wear a face mask?

8 hours ago, legend49 said:

Is that him in life or a wax model from a museum?

When I first read that, I thought you wrote "mausoleum."

3 hours ago, 30la said:

You have no other idea, do you? After the water on the surface has been used in abundance without any sense, it is the turn of the subterranean water, what do you plan to do next?

What next? Kick out all the farang using Thais' water.

Whats happening, he's not asleep,......ok wait a minute or two.

regards worgeordie

"The cabinet agreed on Tuesday to spend 3 billion baht ($100 million) on boreholes and pipes to extract ground water to relieve a drought that is expected to worsen in the next few months, a government spokeswoman told reporters."

 

It's going to be a nice earner for someone, $100 million ,500 boreholes =200,000 US $

a hole,plus pump and some pipe.

regards worgeordie

2 hours ago, worgeordie said:

"The cabinet agreed on Tuesday to spend 3 billion baht ($100 million) on boreholes and pipes to extract ground water to relieve a drought that is expected to worsen in the next few months, a government spokeswoman told reporters."

 

It's going to be a nice earner for someone, $100 million ,500 boreholes =200,000 US $

a hole,plus pump and some pipe.

regards worgeordie

200,000 US $ equals 6 million baht a hole. Most boreholes cost  a fraction of that (say 100,000 baht). The opportunity for skimming will be massive!

13 hours ago, rickudon said:

200,000 US $ equals 6 million baht a hole. Most boreholes cost  a fraction of that (say 100,000 baht). The opportunity for skimming will be massive!

Over 200,000 Baht in Phuket to go down 60 meters 

Corruption found in artesian well-plugging contracts 

Thousands of plugged artesian wells are being examined nationwide after checks uncovered corruption involving government officials and use of poor quality materials in all regions.

At one site, a well was found plugged up with soil, when the contract paperwork claimed it required 112 bags of cement.

Jaramporn Suramanee, a member of the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC), said on Tuesday that plugging unused wells required pumping air to clear the water from the pipes and the use of concrete to seal the hole.

 

PAAC secretary-general Prayong Preeyachitt said the agency had received complaints about shoddy  plugging since 2014, when a government agency completed a 10-year project costing 859 million baht to plug about 44,000 abandoned artesian wells nationwide.

44,000 abandoned artesian wells? Maybe just wells..... and why were they abandoned - no water?

500 wells for 70,000,000 people.

 

That sounds like something the Thai govt would come up with.

Looks like they hit hair dye down the generals well (no wrist shots guys)????

On 1/8/2020 at 2:25 AM, PETERTHEEATER said:

The article specifically refers to artesian wells. These are deep bores in specific locations chosen geographically to access water which will come to the surface under its own pressure. Where are the chosen locations? A sign, a sign Oh Guru!

 

Why is he not following his leader's advice to the Bangkok population to wear a face mask?

 

Technically, artesian means it flows on its own, but like a lot of words, especially translated, it has come to mean a groundwater well whether it flows or needs to be pumped.  I'd cut them some slack on the exact choice of words.  Translating technical nuance is tough, and the guy making the statement may have chosen a more accurate word than the translator did.

 

The mis-used word that drive me crazy is "decimated".  Look up what it really meant back in Roman times.

 

Edited January 9, 20206 yr by impulse

On 1/8/2020 at 7:48 AM, rickudon said:

200,000 US $ equals 6 million baht a hole. Most boreholes cost  a fraction of that (say 100,000 baht). The opportunity for skimming will be massive!

 

Not disagreeing that there's always a massive opportunity for skimming on Thai government projects. 

 

But $200K USD for a municipal well that serves an entire community at (for example) 4,000 liters per minute is pretty cheap.  They're not drilling household wells.

 

Edit:  It's also possible they're going very deep to get to previously untapped fresh water aquifers- to prevent screwing things up for all the small household wells.  That's not cheap, either.

 

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWRD/Resources/Somkid_Buapeng_Ministry_of_Groundwater_Resources_Thailand_Groundwater_in_Bangkok.pdf

 

Edited January 9, 20206 yr by impulse

On 1/8/2020 at 4:31 AM, Matzzon said:

Yep, now he really solved the problem! This is a rather textbook case of insanity. Drought is a problem because the gound water level is at a record low! 

 

What Idea does this mastermind get then? Oh yes! Let´s make 500 artesian wells and get rid of that little left of the ground water that actually still exist.

Great job Prawit! Your planet it very greatful, and will return your wonderful deed in a suitable way. 

 

Very True I live in a small village near Pakchong, we have a very limited amount of Piped water, within a few days of the statement sure enough a team arrived with there Machine & started with the borehole, I believe they went down about 85 mt Ran a 10inch diam pipe down, that was over a week ago, what we see is the pipe about 1m above the ground with the power cable tied round the pipe, have to say the village still has no water, we are waiting for the well water to be piped to our houses 

 

On 1/9/2020 at 9:14 PM, impulse said:

Technically, artesian means it flows on its own, but like a lot of words, especially translated, it has come to mean a groundwater well whether it flows or needs to be pumped. 

True! believe the correct term should "aquifer", as that is what all I know off are, not pressured - require a pump to bring water to surface.