Many Villages Hit By Drought As Dams Less Than Half Full: Thailand

[webfact]

DRY SEASON

Many villages hit by drought as dams less than half full

THE NATION

More than 20,000 villages across the country have been hit by drought as water levels in many large dams are at half capacity.

BANGKOK: -- Wiboon Sanguanpong, director-general of the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department, said yesterday that 21,939 villages in 37 provinces had been declared drought-hit zones. The provinces are in the North, Northeast, East and Central regions.

"Drought victims can call 1784 for help round the clock," Wiboon added.

The Royal Irrigation Department said the Kingdom's large dams currently had 44,310 million cubic metres of water, but only 30 per cent of this can be used. The dams include Kwai Noi Bamrung Dan in Phitsanulok, which is only 29 per cent full; Lop Buri's Pasak Jolasid, which has 41 per cent; Udon Thani's Huai Luang with 27 per cent; Kalasin's Lampao with 39 per cent; Nakhon Nayok's Lam Phra Plerng at 48 per cent; Nakhon Nayok's Khun Dan Prakan Chon at 26 per cent; and Chachoengsao's Klong Si Yad with just 42 per |cent.

The Royal Irrigation Department said that though the amount of water stored was higher than the amount seen during the same period last year, farmers should use water cautiously to ensure that the supply is not disrupted before the start of the rainy season.

Meanwhile, the Royal Irrigation Department has dispatched 635 mobile pumps to help those affected by drought and also has 295 water trucks on stand by.

In related news, the Meteorological Department forecast that thunderstorms and strong winds would hit the North, Northeast, East and Central regions, as well as Greater Bangkok between now and Saturday.

-- The Nation 2012-04-05

[geriatrickid]

Cue, the frothers to blame PTP and Thaksin for the drought conditions.

[Thai at Heart]

The Royal Irrigation Department said that though the amount of water stored was higher than the amount seen during the same period last year, farmers should use water cautiously to ensure that the supply is not disrupted before the start of the rainy season.

So, basically, the rain hasn't fallen quite so much as previous years?

[timber]

Surprise surprise dams at 50% during the dry season. Kinda like having dams at 100%

during the wet season

[saengsureeya]

Not very long ago (after the floods) there was big concern for the dams to be too full.

Some dams contained 87% where 40% was allowed at the time. As a measure, 45,000,000 m3 of water was released on a daily bases.

This kind messages, do me realize where I live.

Heads up for the water-management.

[gk10002000]

Amazing that after the floods how many water shortage problems there seem to be. The country needs to seriously start planning and organizing some water shed control and population housing.

[loong]

One of the problems is the shocking waste of water in the villages.

It amazes me how often people will turn on a tap to fill a bathroom trough and then walk away and forget all about it, sometimes it is left running all day and a river is running down the street. I estimate that much more water is wasted in this village than is actually used.

The water pipe on my neighbour's property is leaking upstream of the meter and has been for over a year. Because it doesn't register on the meter, the neighbour doesn't care, obviously the person who reads the meter doesn't care either as nobody has fixed it. I filled the dog's bowl from it and it took just over a minute for about 1 litre. That's a lot of water wasted.

Plenty of other leaks around the village

[canuckamuck]

Water resource management is being controlled by political goals rather than science. Last year some of the big wigs held on to water because there had been a long drought and they wanted to score points by having lots. These same guys were caught with too much water in their dams during the higher than normal rainy season and then subsequently had to release their water at the worst time possible. This in turn increased the Bangkok flooding and lots of face was lost all around.

Let the hydrologists call the shots and you might see less drama about the water. And plant some trees already

[canuckamuck]

One of the problems is the shocking waste of water in the villages.

It amazes me how often people will turn on a tap to fill a bathroom trough and then walk away and forget all about it, sometimes it is left running all day and a river is running down the street. I estimate that much more water is wasted in this village than is actually used.

The water pipe on my neighbour's property is leaking upstream of the meter and has been for over a year. Because it doesn't register on the meter, the neighbour doesn't care, obviously the person who reads the meter doesn't care either as nobody has fixed it. I filled the dog's bowl from it and it took just over a minute for about 1 litre. That's a lot of water wasted.

Plenty of other leaks around the village

At our village people fill their water tanks with the supplied domestic water, but when the tanks are full they do not use a float valve to stop the water, they just let it run over.

[mowgus]

Water conservation is not in the Thai vocabulary. At home if you had a leaky water pipe, you fixed it. Here they just seem to ignore it. Realistically though, wouldn't the dams being at 50% (or lower) be expected at this point?! Especially when you consider that rain is just around the corner? We've had a couple of good storms in Chiang Mai recently...more to come. And we went for months without rain.

[RedNIvar]

<deleted>, it was my understanding that what aggravated the floods was the fact that the irrigation department decided to fill up the dams to cater for the dry season. Halfway through the rainy season the Dams up north were full to the brim and it was still raining. Hence the need for the release of the Dams that contributed to what we saw last October.

Now they are saying what remaining water or what they had held is still insufficient to support the dry season! What a cluster ****. The rains were sufficient, if properly managed to support the dry season.

[Sayonarax]

Right on queue. Now there's not enough water!

[how241]

Water, always too much or not enough.

[h90]

Don't worry, government will take care of that. By October you get 2 meter water on your land.

[robblok]

Seems there is still water but they just need to be careful with it. Its still more as last year during the same period.

[dickyknee]

So does this mean the dams don't have the capacity to hold the water back during the wet, and hold enough water in the dry?

[Orac]

Right on queue. Now there's not enough water!

You are right of course - anyone could have predicted this headline from The Nation months ago.

[Tanaka]

Cue, the frothers to blame PTP and Thaksin for the drought conditions.

Please, try and engage your brain before you post! And if you do not have anything to say that will move the issue further, do not post at all. Please.

[geriatrickid]

Don't worry, government will take care of that. By October you get 2 meter water on your land.

Yes, Thai government very powerful. They make clouds come. They make big rains.

[geriatrickid]

Cue, the frothers to blame PTP and Thaksin for the drought conditions.

Please, try and engage your brain before you post! And if you do not have anything to say that will move the issue further, do not post at all. Please.

Really, look at some of the comments. I suggest you follow your own advice. The national government is not responsible for leaking pipes in the villages. it is the local administration. if some foreigners are that concerned, they should go and talk to the local chief. BTW, one respondent has illustrated my statement by intimating that the government is responsible for weather conditions.

Edited April 5, 2012 by geriatrickid

[geriatrickid]

Amazing that after the floods how many water shortage problems there seem to be. The country needs to seriously start planning and organizing some water shed control and population housing.

The water shortages apply to some regions which have typically suffered drought and flooding. It's the nature of the weather patterns. You will find that other areas have no water issues at this time.

[daninthai]

Cue, the frothers to blame PTP and Thaksin for the drought conditions.

Agreed. PTP have been so focused on helping Thaksin that they have fogotten completely to let the rain fall over much of the country. Bring on a new election now!

[allan michaud]

Cue, the frothers to blame PTP and Thaksin for the drought conditions.

Please, try and engage your brain before you post! And if you do not have anything to say that will move the issue further, do not post at all. Please.

Really, look at some of the comments. I suggest you follow your own advice. The national government is not responsible for leaking pipes in the villages. it is the local administration. if some foreigners are that concerned, they should go and talk to the local chief. BTW, one respondent has illustrated my statement by intimating that the government is responsible for weather conditions.

Get a life and stop frothing

[Phatcharanan]

Cue, the frothers to blame PTP and Thaksin for the drought conditions.

It's the PTP and Thakin's fault, absolutely.

[Phatcharanan]

Don't worry, government will take care of that. By October you get 2 meter water on your land.

Yes, Thai government very powerful. They make clouds come. They make big rains.

You're a bit weird.

[MAN2SIN2BKK]

http://www.kromchol.com/array/BDam.htm check the water levels, the Bhumibol and Sirikit dams are still above the norm for this time of the year at 56 and 58% respectively

[MAJIC]

Drought what drought? it's impossible to have a drought until after Songkran.

[h90]

Don't worry, government will take care of that. By October you get 2 meter water on your land.

Yes, Thai government very powerful. They make clouds come. They make big rains.

No, but the manage the dams, at least they called before the last flood....

[ResX]

When somebody decided to bring the dam water levels down to 40% (or 60% depends on how ypou define 100%) hydro power plants owner would have been the most happy authority. Most of the stored waters that been collected during the last year's floods have been given to the hydro turbines.

I have proposed many times in the past that Sirkit and Bhumibol, at best have to be brought diown in such a manner they can arrest at least 7 billion cubic meters. 4 billion cubic mters for Bhumibol and 3 billion cubic meters for Sirkit. Anything above that is okay as long as you don't mind to give up the other two important functions of the dams, namely irrigation and domestic water supply.

It doesn't seem that you don't mind. Therefore, I will suggest your water management experts have to go back to the drawing board.

flood control requirement.

Bhumibol and Sirkit dams are expected to deal with annual average rainfall of 19billion ubic meters. Once in 50 years you can expect the dams have to deal with at most 7 billion cubic meters of flood waters that flow in 7-14 days. Based on effective storage volumes for Bhumibol and Sirkit dams 10 and 8 billion cubic meters respectively, the optimum storage levels for these two dams before the monsoon are at 60% level. Anything lower than this level, I think the authororities have not done justice to irrigation and domestic water supply. If it is okay with farmers and other stake holders, then I have nothing to complaint.

There is a possibility that these two dams need to hold higher than 7 billion cubic meters of water. If this is the case then new dam has to be built upstream or dowstream to either one of these dams. There is no short cut to ensure these two dams can provide their intended purposes namely, flood control, irrigation and domestic water supply. Don't even think there is any possible short cut.

[rubl]

Amazing that after the floods how many water shortage problems there seem to be. The country needs to seriously start planning and organizing some water shed control and population housing.

The water shortages apply to some regions which have typically suffered drought and flooding. It's the nature of the weather patterns. You will find that other areas have no water issues at this time.

All is well! The water shortage applies to some regions which have typically suffered drought and flooding. Nothing to worry about!

In the mean time the OP also mentioned

"In related news, the Meteorological Department forecast that thunderstorms and strong winds would hit the North, Northeast, East and Central regions, as well as Greater Bangkok between now and Saturday."