Spreading Drought In Thailand Prompts Royal Concern Over Food Shortages

[webfact]

Spreading drought prompts royal concern over food shortages

BANGKOK: -- Privy councilor Surayud Chulanont has told a meting of state agencies that their Majesties the King and Queen of Thailand have expressed their concern over the widening effects of the drought throughout the country.

According to the Interior Ministry's Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, some 114,000 villages in 36 provinces covering more than 18,880ha (about 46,653 acres) are now declared drought-stricken.

Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Theera Wongsamut said the King and Queen had both expressed their concerns about the likelihood of food shortages in the future, particularly rice, and encouraged all state agencies to work together to overcome the current situation.

In the northeastern province of Udon Thani more than 53,000 homeowners have been told not to drink tap water following an outbreak of algae that contaminated the water supply.

In the northern province of Nan, farmers have begun growing vegetables on the banks of the Nan River, after water shortages destroyed vegetables grown on their farmland.

In the central province of Prachin Buri, sluice gates have been shut after surges of seawater had reached a royal project in tambon Bang Taen in Ban Sang district.

Mr. Theera said provincial centres for monitoring the current situation had been established and were regularly updating the ministry on the effects of the drought.

-- thaivisa.com 2010-03-11

[newsfooter][/newsfooter]

[Garry9999]

The Straits Times (Singapore)

March 9, 2010 Tuesday

Mighty Mekong is drying up

China dams blamed by Thais downstream for fishing and crop woes

Nirmal Ghosh, Thailand Correspondent

CHIANG KHONG: Resentment is simmering among Thai fishing communities along the Mekong River facing a prolonged dry spell and record-low water levels.

Local residents blame China's dams upstream for disrupting fish and other marine life, causing a sharp drop in fish catches and in turn affecting their livelihoods.

Experts and Chinese officials, however, are not convinced that the problem lies with the dams.

China's Assistant Foreign Minister told Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva when they met in Bangkok yesterday that its dams in Yunnan province do not have a significant impact on water levels downstream.

'China would not do anything to damage mutual interest with neighbouring countries in the Mekong,' Mr Hu Zheng-yue was quoted by the Thai media as saying.

The country is experiencing an unusually long dry spell. Some locals say they last saw rain in October last year.

This reporter spent two days visiting communities along the Mekong and talking to people there.

Summer has yet to peak, but already forests and roadsides are littered with tinder-dry teak leaves that crush into a million fragments underfoot.

Smoke from brush and forest fires - some started deliberately to clear land for cultivation - hangs like a shroud over the region and fills the river valley.

The Mekong is one of the world's longest rivers.

Beginning in the Tibetan plateau, it runs through China's Yunnan province, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

The river has dropped to its lowest level in at least 20 years, according to residents.

Shipping between China and Thailand has literally ground to a halt - calling into question the utility of a new port being built at Chiang Saen to accommodate 500-tonne ships instead of the current maximum of 300 tonnes.

Riverbed crops continue to wither, and household taps are running dry as the water levels in wells drop.

More than a dozen communities in towns from Chiang Saen, near Thailand's northern border, to Pa Dai, where the Mekong leaves Thailand for a while to run through Laos, have been affected.

The locals say they have seen the river's water level go up or down by as much as a metre in a single day.

The erratic water levels have disrupted breeding and spawning in the Mekong, where about 70per cent of the fish stock is migratory.

Locals told The Straits Times that their catches of fish had dropped and that large fish were now a rarity.

They also said that unexplained fluctuations in water levels had destroyed dry season crops such as chillies, vegetables and tobacco grown on the exposed portions of the river bed.

Thai senator Prasarn Marukpitak, who is the chairman of a senate sub-committee on the Mekong, said that 'China does not seem concerned'.

While acknowledging that the Chinese need water for their own needs, he said they 'should not think the river is theirs'.

Mr Niwat Roykaew, 50, the head of a conservation group based in Chiang Khong, told The Straits Times: 'Governments can't solve these problems. It is the people who are the key.'

Mr Niwat, who is a teacher, is part of a growing number of activists across the four lower Mekong countries who are networking at a community level to exert pressure on their governments to demand an end to the exploitation of the Mekong.

He listed other issues that add to the problem: navigation, the use of chemical fertilisers in fields adjoining the river, the use of dynamite and electricity to catch fish, and encroachments on wetlands.

But much of his ire is directed at China - and at experts who say that the drought, not the dams, is to blame for the current situation.

China, they point out, contributes just 16 per cent of the water flow in the Mekong, while Laos contributes 35 per cent.

'Academics and experts often ignore local knowledge,' Mr Niwat said. 'But for us here, we just know the dams are a major factor.'

Last month, a Chiang Rai provincial official wrote to Yunnan's governor to ask that water be released to ease the shortage in the lower Mekong, Mr Niwat said.

In his reply, the governor said he could not do so because Yunnan needed water for agriculture during the dry season.

A Thai conservationist and former senator, Ms Tuenjai Deetes, told The Straits Times it was time for a six-party agreement on sharing the waters of the Mekong.

'There is clear evidence that development projects that do not consider trans-boundary social and environmental impacts have disastrous impacts on downstream areas,' she said.

http://www.viet-studies.info/kinhte/Mekong_drying_up.htm

[elcent]

It's one of those "El Nino" years plus the man-made disasters. When you look at Thailand on Google map you can see how much it was carved out of life saving forests. The few left won't help.

[SeanMoran]

The obvious solution is for China to gently open the floodgates and allow the Mekong to have a little water, and when the dams are half empty, let's hope that the Mekong is half full.

[moskito]

It's one of those "El Nino" years plus the man-made disasters. When you look at Thailand on Google map you can see how much it was carved out of life saving forests. The few left won't help.

Even El Nino is nothing new! Too much water in Rainseason, No water in Dryseason....same procedure year after year. SAD BUT BORING if a country never learn from the past, its not the first time and it will not be the last........

[Garry9999]

The obvious solution is for China to gently open the floodgates and allow the Mekong to have a little water, and when the dams are half empty, let's hope that the Mekong is half full.

Which ones?

Mekong Dams compl. MW Geo coordinate

Gongguoqiao Dam 2008 750 25°36′43.7″N 99°17′45.6″E

Xiaowan Dam 2013 4200 24°42′19.1″N 100°5′31.8″E

Manwan Dam 1996 1500 24°37′20.2″N 100°26′56.4″E

Dachaoshan Dam 2003 1350 24°1′40.3″N 100°22′9.8″E

Nuozhadu Dam 2017 5850

Jinghong Dam 2010 1750 21°50′48″N 100°58′21.4″E

Ganlanba Dam n/a 150

Mengsong Dam n/a 600

source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mekong

[Heng]

Surely it's legal for them to do whatever they like with the part of the river that's in their country. I'd bet there are folks who wish they did it first. One solution would be to take control of the source of the river. Doh! Too late again.

[SeanMoran]

The obvious solution is for China to gently open the floodgates and allow the Mekong to have a little water, and when the dams are half empty, let's hope that the Mekong is half full.

Which ones?

Mekong Dams compl. MW Geo coordinate

Gongguoqiao Dam 2008 750 25°36′43.7″N 99°17′45.6″E

Xiaowan Dam 2013 4200 24°42′19.1″N 100°5′31.8″E

Manwan Dam 1996 1500 24°37′20.2″N 100°26′56.4″E

Dachaoshan Dam 2003 1350 24°1′40.3″N 100°22′9.8″E

Nuozhadu Dam 2017 5850

Jinghong Dam 2010 1750 21°50′48″N 100°58′21.4″E

Ganlanba Dam n/a 150

Mengsong Dam n/a 600

source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mekong

Thanks mate, as I have only heard about the dams in China down the Mekong, but never realised that there were so many. We don't make dams just to let the water steam off the top into the sky, so I would imagine that each one of those eight dams is pumping off a good deal of fresh water for some other usage than flow of the Mekong.

There's your answer. Open the floodgates! The culprit is obvious!

No country should have the right to dam a river unless it flows to the coastline within its own territory. I believe that leaves Vietnam with the responsibility of damming the Mekong, although I maybe wrong from the map on Wiki, and some bilateral agreement with Cambodia might allow for smoother engineering over natural geophysics. It is not China's right to dam the Mekong to begin with.

[LaoPo]

The obvious solution is for China to gently open the floodgates and allow the Mekong to have a little water, and when the dams are half empty, let's hope that the Mekong is half full.

Which ones?

Mekong Dams compl. MW Geo coordinate

Gongguoqiao Dam 2008 750 25°36′43.7″N 99°17′45.6″E

Xiaowan Dam 2013 4200 24°42′19.1″N 100°5′31.8″E

Manwan Dam 1996 1500 24°37′20.2″N 100°26′56.4″E

Dachaoshan Dam 2003 1350 24°1′40.3″N 100°22′9.8″E

Nuozhadu Dam 2017 5850

Jinghong Dam 2010 1750 21°50′48″N 100°58′21.4″E

Ganlanba Dam n/a 150

Mengsong Dam n/a 600

source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mekong

Thanks mate, as I have only heard about the dams in China down the Mekong, but never realised that there were so many. We don't make dams just to let the water steam off the top into the sky, so I would imagine that each one of those eight dams is pumping off a good deal of fresh water for some other usage than flow of the Mekong.

There's your answer. Open the floodgates! The culprit is obvious!

No country should have the right to dam a river unless it flows to the coastline within its own territory. I believe that leaves Vietnam with the responsibility of damming the Mekong, although I maybe wrong from the map on Wiki, and some bilateral agreement with Cambodia might allow for smoother engineering over natural geophysics. It is not China's right to dam the Mekong to begin with.

The topic is about Spreading Drought In Thailand and not about the Mekong, drying up, or the dams in China which are NOT the cause for the present droughts in Thailand and China (and elsewhere in the region) !

There's another topic running about the Mekong:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Water-Wars-E...50#entry3403493

EDIT:

Maybe I should add:

"Natural Resource and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti said separately that Chinese dams were not a big contributing factor to the drought in the Mekong basin. There are many other factors in the region that could have caused the river's low water level, he said.

"It is difficult to blame China, as it shares only some 15 per cent of the water flow. Water supply to the river from Thailand and Laos is more than half of the total," he said."

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Water-Wars-E...15#entry3398415

Droughts as well as floodings are worldwide problems and not to be blamed on just one source.

It's also a fact that Thailand itself neglected to try and control their excessive water supplies, both by rain and rivers, on a large scale in the past.

It's easier to blame the neighbor, isn't it?

LaoPo

Edited March 11, 2010 by LaoPo

[SeanMoran]

Then I suggest you find someone to merge Gary9999's Straits' Times article and my replies into that thread.

Thank you for mentioning this.

[ratcatcher]

While Thais are fighting Thais over one man's wealth and desire for power, the real problem that faces the country is once again brought to everyone's attention by the man who cares the most about all Thais.

Water is life. Money is not.

[LaoPo]

Then I suggest you find someone to merge Gary9999's Straits' Times article and my replies into that thread.

Thank you for mentioning this.

That's not my job but Gary9999's; he could also post that article in the same topic, although it's "old" news to the topic about the Mekong as it's proven not to be correct.

That the Mekong is drying up is correct but the accusations it's China's fault are not as China's southern provinces are suffering from severe droughts themselves:

Severe drought in SW China regions likely to linger till May

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Water-Wars-E...87#entry3403487

That also means that the problems with the drying up Mekong will last and will probably be even more severe than anticipated.

LaoPo

[gemini81]

The obvious solution is for China to gently open the floodgates and allow the Mekong to have a little water, and when the dams are half empty, let's hope that the Mekong is half full.

Which ones?

Mekong Dams compl. MW Geo coordinate

Gongguoqiao Dam 2008 750 25°36′43.7″N 99°17′45.6″E

Xiaowan Dam 2013 4200 24°42′19.1″N 100°5′31.8″E

Manwan Dam 1996 1500 24°37′20.2″N 100°26′56.4″E

Dachaoshan Dam 2003 1350 24°1′40.3″N 100°22′9.8″E

Nuozhadu Dam 2017 5850

Jinghong Dam 2010 1750 21°50′48″N 100°58′21.4″E

Ganlanba Dam n/a 150

Mengsong Dam n/a 600

source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mekong

Thanks mate, as I have only heard about the dams in China down the Mekong, but never realised that there were so many. We don't make dams just to let the water steam off the top into the sky, so I would imagine that each one of those eight dams is pumping off a good deal of fresh water for some other usage than flow of the Mekong.

There's your answer. Open the floodgates! The culprit is obvious!

No country should have the right to dam a river unless it flows to the coastline within its own territory. I believe that leaves Vietnam with the responsibility of damming the Mekong, although I maybe wrong from the map on Wiki, and some bilateral agreement with Cambodia might allow for smoother engineering over natural geophysics. It is not China's right to dam the Mekong to begin with.

The topic is about Spreading Drought In Thailand and not about the Mekong, drying up, or the dams in China which are NOT the cause for the present droughts in Thailand and China (and elsewhere in the region) !

There's another topic running about the Mekong:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Water-Wars-E...50#entry3403493

EDIT:

Maybe I should add:

"Natural Resource and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti said separately that Chinese dams were not a big contributing factor to the drought in the Mekong basin. There are many other factors in the region that could have caused the river's low water level, he said.

"It is difficult to blame China, as it shares only some 15 per cent of the water flow. Water supply to the river from Thailand and Laos is more than half of the total," he said."

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Water-Wars-E...15#entry3398415

Droughts as well as floodings are worldwide problems and not to be blamed on just one source.

It's also a fact that Thailand itself neglected to try and control their excessive water supplies, both by rain and rivers, on a large scale in the past.

It's easier to blame the neighbor, isn't it?

LaoPo

why so uptight about it LaoPo? Its true that china is a contributing factor, and if you can't openly talk about it on a forum, whats the purpose of the forum? Can't just say "drought" as this "dry season" has had unusual rainfall. (yesterday did in many places throughout the country) call that a drought or are some selfish groups out for themselves disregarding other nearby countries?

[SeanMoran]

Then I suggest you find someone to merge Gary9999's Straits' Times article and my replies into that thread.

Thank you for mentioning this.

That's not my job but Gary9999's; he could also post that article in the same topic, although it's "old" news to the topic about the Mekong as it's proven not to be correct.

That the Mekong is drying up is correct but the accusations it's China's fault are not as China's southern provinces are suffering from severe droughts themselves:

Severe drought in SW China regions likely to linger till May

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Water-Wars-E...87#entry3403487

That also means that the problems with the drying up Mekong will last and will probably be even more severe than anticipated.

LaoPo

So there is a drought from Yunnan to Nong Khai. That is the signal for China to open the floodgates. Do you see the connection between droughts and dams? It's water.

---o0o---

I'm off to bed now. I hope that we can sort this Mekong problem out in the morning if we work together, because I don't have a pilots' licence so I can't do much about the cloud seeding, so the irrigation via a natgurally flowing Mekong River is about the most I can get involved with. Good night and Sweet Dreams, and see you tomorrow.

Edited March 11, 2010 by SeanMoran

[moskito]

maybe China is a little bit faster in knowing future events. The glaciers which are producing the Mekong will not last forever and it is just natural to SAFE water NOW....if the Thais doesnt act soon they will see what they get.....BUT wich government here give a sh_t? The bigheads here will have enough water when the farmers still fighting for it.

[xen]

[While Thais are fighting Thais over one man's wealth and desire for power, the real problem that faces the country is once again brought to everyone's attention by the man who cares the most about all Thais.

Water is life. Money is not. /quote]

Very well said

[PawyiLee]

.... The glaciers which are producing the Mekong will not last forever....

I think all glaciers feeding the Mekong are all gone forever.

[philliphn]

My reservior is too dry, too dry, too dry.

Dig it deeper dear lazer, dear lazer, dear lazer.

Dig it deeper dear lazer, deeper deeper!

[animatic]

Once again a certain party pops in to do nothing but defend china from any comments that might besmirch it's image.

Not a comment seen about the issue at hand. Nor solution offered.

Or whether China, legal rights aside, might do the MORAL thing and

open the sluices as a good neighbor in a humanitarian action.

No it's always, 'don't we DARE talk bad about China'....

Edited March 12, 2010 by animatic

[soihok]

My wifes folks run a provision store out in the hills near Pak Chong, they buy supplies from Sikiu market.

The prices of basic foods are now rising every week.

[rreddin]

[While Thais are fighting Thais over one man's wealth and desire for power, the real problem that faces the country is once again brought to everyone's attention by the man who cares the most about all Thais.

Water is life. Money is not.

Very well said

This thread is a stark reminder that this country is facing another problem that could have consequences far more reaching than the events in Bangkok this week end. If my memory serves me, there have been recent posts on TV about rice farmerms in the central region being told not to plant their usual second crop because of the drought.

I am not a farmer, but I live in a farming comunity, albeit one that only has one rice crop a year. In this neck of the woods, the farmers have no option but to mortgage next season's crop so that they can survive through the year. If the economics of the central rice growing region are the same as they are here, not having a second crop could ruin many small farmers. That is why the drought is not going to stop them from planting a second crop.

They are between a rock and a hard place - don't plant and face finacial ruin; or, plant and risk a poor harvest.

[Heng]

No country should have the right to dam a river unless it flows to the coastline within its own territory. I believe that leaves Vietnam with the responsibility of damming the Mekong, although I maybe wrong from the map on Wiki, and some bilateral agreement with Cambodia might allow for smoother engineering over natural geophysics. It is not China's right to dam the Mekong to begin with.

That's like saying you have no right to have bathtubs in your house.

[LaoPo]

Once again a certain party pops in to do nothing but defend china from any comments that might besmirch it's image.

Not a comment seen about the issue at hand. Nor solution offered.

Or whether China, legal rights aside, might do the MORAL thing and

open the sluices as a good neighbor in a humanitarian action.

No it's always, 'don't we DARE talk bad about China'....

AAhhhh.....Mr. Farang-who-always-knows-best-and-better about Thailand from Samui jumps in and starts commenting.

If you start reading the thread below (where I didn't see you commenting yet) maybe you are able to educate yourself a little better about the droughts, rain, excessive water supplies and rivers, it's causes and solutions in Thailand and it's surrounding neighbors.

In that topic there are 2 major contributions from 2 specialist members: Watersedge post #38 and Chinavet in post #64 who know more about water control and solutions than all other members combined, including myself and I suggest you read them first before commenting about opening sluices:

Water wars erupt as Mekong runs dry and temperatures to hit 43C (109F)

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Water-Wars-E...ry-t344360.html

Who says there is enough water behind the dams/sluices ? ....you ? Are you aware that the supply of water from China into the Mekong is only a mere 15% of the total when it enters Burma, Laos and Thailand....? And that 15% is already the total supply for centuries. The rest comes from the other neighboring countries like Myanmar/Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and last but not least...Vietnam.

And what about the dam within Thailand itself when it blocks water supplies from the (Thailand origin) rivers, Mun and Chi, BEFORE it enters the Mekong in Laos ? ...I hear nobody about that...

Ignorance and than start commenting....

LaoPo

[kennalder]

Surely it's legal for them to do whatever they like with the part of the river that's in their country. I'd bet there are folks who wish they did it first. One solution would be to take control of the source of the river. Doh! Too late again.

I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing you are right. And if by some circumstance it isn't legal, how would any country go about forcing the Chinese to open the floodgates?

Okay, but let's look at a bigger picture. If the Thai's, Burmese, and other affected countries are all of a sudden wanting the Chinese to stop depriving them of water, then for crying out loud, stop depriving yourself and everyone else of clean, breathable air! Stop this insane burning of everything in sight, now. A very selfish set of values exist in an otherwise lovely country.

[Heng]

Surely someone would have brought it up by now if it were indeed illegal.

How is a river different from any other natural resource that's within your country's boundaries: oil, coal, gold, etc.? Just because it's wet and/or it flows downhill?

[Rideau]

It is always convenient to blame everything on China. China has already been suffering from the melting of glaciers.

Nobody asks how much forest and headwaters in Laos have diminished in recent years.

As well, open Google Earth/Google Map and turn off "show border". See how brown Thailand is.

Thais always blame others for their self-made faults. The Thais manage their natural resources so poorly.