Electricity And Water In Rural Villages

[martianmartian]

Ok, bear with me for a moment.

I have spent a fair amount of time in Isaan (a few months total from ~5 visits) and have mostly seen the major cities, but also a decent part of the countryside. Now, in all of that time I never saw a village without electricity or running water. Granted, I wasn't always on the lookout for these two things, but nonetheless I don't remember seeing a single place without those amenities.

Someone I was speaking with was telling me how their development project greatly improved the lives of people in a certain village in Isaan (that should remain anonymous). Specifically, I was told that the said project provided electricity and water to a village that did not before have either. The person (who should also remain anonymous) did not want to go into much more detail then that despite a number of follow-up questions that I had (where, how etc.).

So my question to people on this board is: do such places still exist in Isaan? If so, what kinds of places (what size) are still lacking these utilities? And if not, when were that last villages connected to the grid? Recently or many years ago?

Thanks very much for any knowledge you can share about this.

[nidge]

When i lived in my wife's village we had both electricity and running water. However, whenever there was a storm or heavy rain the electricity dissappeared. The running water was not very good quality and was really only used for washing the dishes and showering. Other than that we used rain water that was collected via pipes leading to huge concrete(?) storage vessels. If you see these storage vessels anywhere it would give a good indication of either poor quality or no running water.

[martianmartian]

When i lived in my wife's village we had both electricity and running water. However, whenever there was a storm or heavy rain the electricity dissappeared. The running water was not very good quality and was really only used for washing the dishes and showering. Other than that we used rain water that was collected via pipes leading to huge concrete(?) storage vessels. If you see these storage vessels anywhere it would give a good indication of either poor quality or no running water.

Thanks for responding. Does anyone else have any insights about utilities in Isaan that they can share?

Cheers.

[phibunmike]

When i lived in my wife's village we had both electricity and running water. However, whenever there was a storm or heavy rain the electricity dissappeared. The running water was not very good quality and was really only used for washing the dishes and showering. Other than that we used rain water that was collected via pipes leading to huge concrete(?) storage vessels. If you see these storage vessels anywhere it would give a good indication of either poor quality or no running water.

Thanks for responding. Does anyone else have any insights about utilities in Isaan that they can share?

Cheers.

Villages near me have both electricity and water. As nidge said, storms often interrupt power for a while. Water pressure in the villages can be very low, and people collect rain water to supplement it. Some people also have bore holes to enhance their water supply. We have a bore hole as our only source of water, but we are outside the village. Also, like others outside the village, all other non-village houses near me have electricity, strung on bamboo poles or whatever from the nearest concrete electricity pole. I have never seen a house here, however poor or remote, without water and electricity. But, of course, they might exist. I am not including the simple houses or shelters in the fields used only during the rice harvest.

(Yes, the big jars are concrete: and, off topic, chopped-up banana plant stems are used to treat the concrete when new to treat the concrete and improve the water quality. A house will typically have about 3 of these jars.)

Cheers,

Mike

[ronthompson]

My wife tells me there are villages in Issan with out electrical service. I have noticed very small villages more like small compounds that have no electrical wires. Your friend very well could be correct how ever.it depends on his definition of village if he puts a population size on the village.

As far as running water, I have not been in a small village that had a water supply other than a well(or bore) for each individual house. I have just ran a blue pipe like of couple hundred meters to my house from a clear(er) lake for soft water, as mentioned earlier the large jars collect rain water and everyone has several.

The government does give each village money every so often based on population and the village will decide how to spend the money. This year they fixed up old tires to make vegatable planters so each house could have fresh herb and/or vegetables. I have noticed them in several villages some company made a few bucks selling them to the villages.

[Gimbo]

In the village I am in the Wat owns the water tower and pump system that sits on its grounds. And there is a feller in the village who takes care of the maintenance and repairs. The water comes from the Mae Nam Mun river and is not filtered in any way. So when I have a shower, there is a good deposit of silt between the tiles in the bathroom In (next project is having filters intsalled at our house)

The water is out a few times every day, as there is no automatic shut off valve in the water tower. SO when the tank is full, they stop the pump, or it just overflows. So when the tower is empty, there is no running water, until someone goes over to the wat and starts the pump again.

The ater pipes are all PVC and breaks often too.

Electricity is fairly stable here. In the two months I have been here, we've only had outages for a few hours during the heaviest of the rainy season.

There is an elecricity mains line running trough the village, and ours comes direct from that, with our meter sitting on the pylon for it right outside the house.

[toptuan]

From a 1990 study:

"Electricity is available in most parts of Thailand, including more than 80 percent of households in

provinces in the Thai portion of the LMB. In the provinces of the central Korat Plateau, more than 90

percent of households have electricity, which may be due to the proximity of hydro-power and thermal

generating plants."

Taking into account this study is now almost 18 years ago, Thailand's rural areas much be approaching 100% electrification by now. Asian Development Bank programs for Thailand and the World Bank have been very active in financing Thailand's rural electrification programs over the last 20 years.

My Thai friends tell me that Thailand is 100% electrified in rural areas, so those without electrical service must be few and far between. In 5 years of traveling throughout Isaan, I have yet to see a poor farmer or construction worker without electric--even living in a small shanty.

[phibunmike]

.... The water comes from the Mae Nam Mun river and is not filtered in any way ....

Our local villages also get their water from the Mae Nam Mun - we are a few km outside Phibun Mangsahan. Our house is close to the river, so the water table is high, and our bore hole produces good water year-round.

[Thaicoon]

In our village only 4 Kms from Buriram, no mains water, only well water, We are having Mains water sometime in 2008 and a new concrete road, the village opposite and the one next to us had Mains water this year, but most of the time does not work, my mate still has his well for flushing the loo. in case of problems, not with his bouls, but the water.our house has its own well and a big water tower in the grounds which gives us good presure, the water feeds through a water filter, i cannot wait to have proper mains water as the trouble with well water is that leaves terrible staining to tiles taps etc,

Some of the village still use the old hand pump well.

first time i visited buriram, 13 years ago, a lot of villages had no power, we had our electric in the village installed about 11 years ago, there are still houses with no power, but now few and far between, one elder in our village has no power, she still likes the old way of lighting the candle at night. her house is also a bit out of the way.

Edited November 22, 2007 by Thaicoon

[martianmartian]

.... The water comes from the Mae Nam Mun river and is not filtered in any way ....

Our local villages also get their water from the Mae Nam Mun - we are a few km outside Phibun Mangsahan. Our house is close to the river, so the water table is high, and our bore hole produces good water year-round.

thanks again everyone. So, one of those links says that 80/90 of households had electricity. But, what are the odds of a whole village not having electricity? Does anyone know about which decade did the first electric lines get put into rural Isaan villages? If anyone knows of any other sources or people I should speak to, I'll again be most grateful.

Cheers...

edit

..........

p.s. I just saw the post above (I wrote this before refreshing), so that answer helps with what I just asked. Do others have similar experieinces that it was about a decade ago that power was brought into villages you know of?

Edited November 22, 2007 by martianmartian

[danfred]

The government does give each village money every so often based on population and the village will decide how to spend the money. This year they fixed up old tires to make vegatable planters so each house could have fresh herb and/or vegetables. I have noticed them in several villages some company made a few bucks selling them to the villages.

We have the planters too (as of 3-4 months ago). They seems to be a sort of fad that is spreading from village to village. Word is in my village that they were constructed rather cheaply and someone pocketed some money. I have yet to see anything growing in any of them!

[Thaicoon]

The government does give each village money every so often based on population and the village will decide how to spend the money. This year they fixed up old tires to make vegatable planters so each house could have fresh herb and/or vegetables. I have noticed them in several villages some company made a few bucks selling them to the villages.

We have the planters too (as of 3-4 months ago). They seems to be a sort of fad that is spreading from village to village. Word is in my village that they were constructed rather cheaply and someone pocketed some money. I have yet to see anything growing in any of them!

In our village there are a few, they seem to be used as bins, always full of rubbish

[Gary A]

I don't know of any villages without electricity. There are many villages with no water systems. Our small village has a water system. The water comes from a well (bore hole) and fills four elevated tanks. We have village water for a couple hours in the morning and another couple of hours in the evening. We fill our own tanks with village water during the dry season and collect rain water during the rainy season. I plan to buy a 5,000 liter tank before the next rainy season to collect rain water from off my garage.

[thedi]

I live in a small village for 15 years. When I arrived here 15 years ago, there was already electricity, but no tap water. Tap water come about 8 years ago.

I would say, that today, there is no village left without electricity. There may be some remote stables which have no electricity, but I do not think that there is a officially recognized village without electricity left today.

Water: it depends on what your definition is.

Some villages have a pond where they have a pump and distribute this water through pipes to the village. Others have a well. We are lucky that we get water which is professionally processed from a river. Most houses in the village still have their rain collecting system. This is the water most people drink here. But some people drink the tap water and nobody ever got sick of it. But I would not recommend this in every place here in Isarn.

My guess is: there is some tap water in every village today. But I know cases of villages, where the tap water may be acceptable for a shower, but no farang would use that tap water to brush his teeth.

Regards

Thedi

[AYJAYDEE]

.... The water comes from the Mae Nam Mun river and is not filtered in any way ....

Our local villages also get their water from the Mae Nam Mun - we are a few km outside Phibun Mangsahan. Our house is close to the river, so the water table is high, and our bore hole produces good water year-round.

Mike:

did you ever meet a guy named bruce armstrong married to bunmanee. cant remember the village name but its acroos the bridge over the mun, turn right and go about 1 or 2 km and turn into a village near the river. there is a resort beside the village within view of the bridge. they built a house on the river bank about 1 km below the bridge. her family name is champathet.

tony

[thaipete]

When i lived in my wife's village we had both electricity and running water. However, whenever there was a storm or heavy rain the electricity dissappeared. The running water was not very good quality and was really only used for washing the dishes and showering. Other than that we used rain water that was collected via pipes leading to huge concrete(?) storage vessels. If you see these storage vessels anywhere it would give a good indication of either poor quality or no running water.

Not entirely true they are used commonly for storage tanks from wells or company water, the company water is often intermittent and a supply is needed for household use.

Deep well water is often expensive to pump and the resultant flow often poor so a storage and a further household pump are essential

[keg]

Lived in a small village in Loei Province (100 houses) and had electricity put in about 10 years ago. Wife said she knows of no villages in the area that don't have electricity. Water is a different story though. Some of the remoter villages do not have a central water system yet. Our village had a storage pond that pumped water throughout the village. Water came straight from the river and was ok for showers and washing dishes and clothes. Most houses had storage for rain water for cooking and drinking. Had several community wells with hand pumps in the village that some used as water was cleaner then river water. Six months ago new well drilled and piping laid out for the village. Still waiting for the storage tank to turn system on however, no estimated time for delivery.

Keg

[Goinghomesoon]

Thai partner just enquired at office in Phon Phisai about getting *electric* which currently does not run anywhere near our land (fifteen mins drive from nearest village, which is itself about 20 mins from PP). They said the govt will run wires and provide service once there is a group of five homes close together. Trying to get them to quantify *close together* was nigh on impossible so we are going to try getting the neighbours together to write and request it. They said the wait would take up to 12 months.