Dry May: Phuket Faces Water Shortages

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Dry May: Phuket faces water shortages

The state of Bangwad Reservoir in Kathu at the end of May.

PHUKET: -- Despite some sporadic heavy rains, parts of Phuket continued to face water shortages throughout May.

Sun Jantarawong, who heads the Phuket Office of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, said parts of Thalang including Mai Khao, Sakhoo, Pa Khlok and Thepkrasattri continued to suffer from lack of water last month.

“Luckily local administrations had good water management for their people. I think they will be better off now,” he said.

According to Meteorological Department statistics, total rainfall from May 1 to 30 at the Phuket Town monitoring station was down 208.9mm compared to all of May 2009.

May 2009 had total rainfall of 288.5 millimeters, compared to just 79.6mm recorded over the first 30 days of May 2010.

For the 30-year period from 1971-2000, mean monthly rainfall at the Phuket Town station was 282.6mm.

For the same period at Phuket Airport, mean monthly rainfall was 291.4mm.

As of yesterday, year-to-date rainfall amounts at the Phuket Town and Phuket Airport stations were 386.4mm and 520.9mm, respectively.

Of the Meteorological Department’s eight monitoring stations along the Andaman Coast, Satun Province has been the rainiest with 735.4mm year-to-date, while the station on Koh Lanta in Krabi has recorded just 186.0mm.

An officer at the Phuket Town monitoring station, who asked to remain anonymous, suggested the ‘El Nino effect’ might be responsible for the late arrival of heavy rains this year.

Storage at the Bangwad Reservoir in Kathu dropped from 2.8 million cubic meters at the end of April to just 1.9 million cubic meters by the end of May, said Phuket Provincial Irrigation Office director Weerawat Aungsupanith.

The current amount is enough to last about one more month without replenishment, he said.

Chalee Sittabut of the Phuket Agricultural Extension Office’s strategy and information section said his agency initially worried that lack of rainfall could negatively impact agriculture, but said that farmers had largely managed to find enough water for their crops from tin mining ponds and other sources.

In a bid to increase storage capacity, work is underway on two small reservoirs in Rassada, one next to the Rajabaht Phuket University campus and the other off Soi Phanieng.

-- Phuket Gazette 2010-06-03

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[gotlost]

Pick a number and stand in line. You won't get any sympathy out of Chiang Mai. Were in the same pickle.

[LivinLOS]

Was surprised at how low Bang Wad was recently.. I know its end of dry season but thought we had started to get some good wet days and figured it would be a bit higher.

[katabeachbum]

Was surprised at how low Bang Wad was recently.. I know its end of dry season but thought we had started to get some good wet days and figured it would be a bit higher.

it goes for surface water wells too. in my Moo Bahn the neighbors supplied by their own wells 7-10 meters deep are all digging it deeper this year

[LivinginKata]

All the rain today will help fill up the reservoir & wells ....

[markg]

I wonder how all the golf courses stay green?

[khunbrookes]

All the rain today will help fill up the reservoir & wells ....

Sorry but this statement is nonsensical

All the rain?? wheewweee Afew mmls is all that has fallen so far today if we had had torential downpour for nonstop 24 hr we coulkd agree with your statement

A mere sprinkle like this would have very little effect on increasing storage levels, afew mmls like this falling directly into dams etc is the proverbial Drop on the ocean and as for the rest it is simply soaked up by the parched earth initially but later like after many many mms of rain and the ground is basically waterlogged and the ground water levels rise sure then the storage dams and wells will start filling again

I for one really really are looking ford to raincomming as i have been buying water since last year as the powers to be have nowater pressure to my apartment not far from and above opposite simon cabaret

This weather is at least coming from the south and west so cood be the start of real but very late monsoon system at last and then you can start saying as you have alredy said but with some matter of fact another fact of course is that the world weather patterns are all over the places andits a good possibilty that we will not get the needed rainfall

[khunbrookes]

There is huge rain / storm clouds forming just outside of Phuket at the moment.

I'd say that we'll have a good amount of rain today.

I really hope we do get a lot of rain, but as we have had only maybee 25% of normal rain last month alone its gonna take huge continuoall downpours to make alot of diferense >maybee make the weeds grow quick but thats aboutit for now

[khunbrookes]

I wonder how all the golf courses stay green?

presume the same as in oz they use spear pumps to bring water from deep underground pressure

we had them on our local course anyways and very good and easy

Edited June 4, 2010 by khunbrookes

[markg]

I wonder how all the golf courses stay green?

presume the same as in oz they use spear pumps to bring water from deep underground pressure

we had them on our local course anyways and very good and easy

Might be an idea for the local populace then................if they are 'good and easy' as you say.

Maybe the local authority could requisition them and force golf courses to pump water for humans instead of for their fairways..............

Maybe they could put these quick and easy spear pumps in the BOTTOM of the reservoir ?

A torrential downpour is of less benefit than you might imagine. When the ground becomes waterlogged, or rain falls quicker than the ground can absorb it, it becomes 'run off' and just runs into the drains and then into the sea. Basically it's lost.

Steady rain for 24 hours is what is needed.

[Valentine]

Might be an idea for the local populace then................if they are 'good and easy' as you say.

Maybe the local authority could requisition them and force golf courses to pump water for humans instead of for their fairways..............

Maybe they could put these quick and easy spear pumps in the BOTTOM of the reservoir ?

A torrential downpour is of less benefit than you might imagine. When the ground becomes waterlogged, or rain falls quicker than the ground can absorb it, it becomes 'run off' and just runs into the drains and then into the sea. Basically it's lost.

Steady rain for 24 hours is what is needed.

In Kathu there is a canal & during heavy rains a large amount of the overflow is siphoned off into a small reservoir which then pumps the water up to Bang Wad. Not sure if this happens elsewhere.

[JetsetBkk]

Same every year - same worries, same panic, same predictions of dire consequences.

It always rains.

Just wait.

[JetsetBkk]

See! Told ya!

It's pissing down in Phuket Town.

I'm a poet and I know it.

[grumpyoldman]

All the rain today will help fill up the reservoir & wells ....

Sorry but this statement is nonsensical

All the rain?? wheewweee Afew mmls is all that has fallen so far today if we had had torential downpour for nonstop 24 hr we coulkd agree with your statement

A mere sprinkle like this would have very little effect on increasing storage levels, afew mmls like this falling directly into dams etc is the proverbial Drop on the ocean and as for the rest it is simply soaked up by the parched earth initially but later like after many many mms of rain and the ground is basically waterlogged and the ground water levels rise sure then the storage dams and wells will start filling again

I for one really really are looking ford to raincomming as i have been buying water since last year as the powers to be have nowater pressure to my apartment not far from and above opposite simon cabaret

This weather is at least coming from the south and west so cood be the start of real but very late monsoon system at last and then you can start saying as you have alredy said but with some matter of fact another fact of course is that the world weather patterns are all over the places andits a good possibilty that we will not get the needed rainfall

Wow, that's spouting some negativity there KB, along with complete pessimism. Also, you can use the word "nonsense" no need to go nonsensical.

We had an inch and a half yesterday, I'd say 2-3 inches last night, I think your prediction of not a lot of rain due to "world weather patterns" is premature. I remember two years ago I was at a restaurant and the owner was saying "El Nino is here, we are going to have a huge drought". He split for Chiang Rai and it rained for a week straight.

KB I'd be more worried about the hill your living on giving way.

Another option might be talking to the owners about a pipeline from the Nanai flood plain.

[khunbrookes]

Might be an idea for the local populace then................if they are 'good and easy' as you say.

Maybe the local authority could requisition them and force golf courses to pump water for humans instead of for their fairways..............

Maybe they could put these quick and easy spear pumps in the BOTTOM of the reservoir ?

A torrential downpour is of less benefit than you might imagine. When the ground becomes waterlogged, or rain falls quicker than the ground can absorb it, it becomes 'run off' and just runs into the drains and then into the sea. Basically it's lost.

Steady rain for 24 hours is what is needed.

The reason they are good and eassy for irrigation in that the water used for irrigation is more ofton than no not potable

what you say about 'run off' is excactly how the dams and reso\erevois refill guy from runoff from th catchment areas ;very little increase in dam levles from diract rainfall onto dam surface sure a lot flows out to oceans from drains but were else can it go a sad reality that one world over

[gotlost]

I wonder how all the golf courses stay green?

Its all the beer they sell it has to go somewhere.