Expert warns of severe drought in Thailand next year

[webfact]

DROUGHT
Expert warns of severe drought next year
Pongphon Sarnsamak
The Nation

Water levels in the Bang Pakong River in Chachoengsao are running very low as the country enters the dry season.

Low dam levels, El Nino phenomenon point to water shortages: scientist

BANGKOK: -- Thailand may face a severe drought next year due to the El Nino weather phenomenon, a leading meteorologist has warned.

In another worrying sign, experts have warned that the current volume of water reserves in the major dams is not enough to meet demand this year.

Maytee Mahayosananta, director of the Meteorological Department's Central Weather Forecast Division, said after he studied several weather forecast models, he found that the El Nino phenomenon would start in Thailand this year.

As a result, Maytee said Thailand would not have enough water this year and next year as the phenomenon reduced rainfall.

"The volume of water this year will be less than that in 2013," he said.

According to the Royal Irrigation Department, the volume of water reserves in two major dams, Bhumibol and Sirikit, was only 21 per cent or about 3,893 million cubic metres.

This amount of water will be used in the Chao Phraya river basin.

The department found that the amount of water reserves in the two dams has drastically decreased and will not be enough for human use and to preserve ecosystems.

Thongplew Kongjun, director of the Department's Office of Water Management and Hydrology, has urged members of the public and farmers to be conservative in the use of water.

He said that the department this year expected to use 5.3 billion cubic metres of water from three major dams during the dry season but the water reserves it had used exceeded the plan by 600 million cubic metres.

Rains to arrive late

Additionally, the department expects the rainy season to start later this year than normal in mid-May, which means Thailand will not have water reserves this year and next year.

"Hopefully, farmers will not start planting their rice farms during this season. If they don't, then we will have enough water," Thongplew added.

Suwattana Jitraladakorn, chairman of the Engineering Institute of Thailand's water resources engineering sub-panel, said the amount of water in the Chao Phraya River this year was lower than normal.

He said that water reserves in major dams were low because the authorities had discharged a large volume of water in 2012.

Also, he found that the total number of rice farms this year had grown over 200 per cent.

Hydro and Agro Informatics Institute director Royol Chitradon said there was some rainfall in the upper areas of the Bhumibol and Sirikit dams, and that was why there were small amounts of water reserves in the dams.

"We found that the level of water reserves in these two dams was the lowest in 10 years," he said.

According to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, about 38 provinces nationwide have been declared drought zones.

In a bid to resolve drought problems in the long term, National Water and Flood Management secretary general Suphot Tovichakchaikul said all abandoned water resources must be recovered and have their capacity improved.

The use of water must be matched by demand and supply in local areas, he said. He said he was preparing a Bt2-trillion mega project to connect all water resources and distribute water directly to farmers.

Under this project, the water from the Mekong River will be diverted to the Kingdom during the rain season.

"This project will be proposed to the new government," he said.


-- The Nation 2014-04-08

[zydeco]

And we all know what this means. Next time there is excess rainfall, the authorities will refuse to release water from the dams. And then we'll have another flood. They've already hinted at it in this article, blaming the drought on the release of water in 2012--which happened, as I remember, to keep the dams from releasing water and causing floods to match those in 2011.

[rhythmworx]

Never mind the local shop will have plenty of water, maybe at a slightly higher price.

[NongKhaiKid]

A severe drought next year but what about the current one which means you don't have to be a so called expert to come up with predictions like this.

[RubbaJohnny]

Drought of ideas in a hub of slop

[Robroona]

Less water = smaller rice crops. Rice pledging scheme won't lose so much next year

[MaxLee]

Wait for August, September, climax October and a little bit of November, then those so called experts will complain about too much water,.... Wanna bet?

[slapout]

Suphot may want to review the time and manpower in writting/researching, and presenting his request for 2 trillion baht for water projects, as the last mega project proposed is kind of in limbo. Wonder who he plans on making this proposel to?

The drought is here in some parts of the country and combined with the man made shortage of reservior water, the addition of paddy land in last 2 years thus farm demand, more hard decisions will be required and a 2 trillion baht request will not solve the mistakes made, that must be faced and corrected

[chainarong]

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MaxLee, on 08 Apr 2014 - 08:44, said:

Wait for August, September, climax October and a little bit of November, then those so called experts will complain about too much water,.... Wanna bet?

Flood mitigation is all in place, just ask C.T.P.M. Yingluck Shinawatra , she sorted this out two years back , so she told everyone.

Edited April 8, 2014 by chainarong

[bangkokheat]

Thongplew Kongjun, director of the Department's Office of Water Management and Hydrology, has urged members of the public and farmers to be conservative in the use of water.

songkran as usual then

[bangkokheat]

they have experts in thailand? oh dear, i am beside myself

[Chupup]

Not going to make any difference to Soncran, loads of water will be thrown about TIT..............

[NongKhaiKid]

Suphot may want to review the time and manpower in writting/researching, and presenting his request for 2 trillion baht for water projects, as the last mega project proposed is kind of in limbo. Wonder who he plans on making this proposel to?

The drought is here in some parts of the country and combined with the man made shortage of reservior water, the addition of paddy land in last 2 years thus farm demand, more hard decisions will be required and a 2 trillion baht request will not solve the mistakes made, that must be faced and corrected

A 2 trillion baht plan may not solve the problem but a cash injection of that amount will be most welcome and no doubt put to ' good use ' much of which will have nothing to do with water management.

[bushwacker]

I would think that engineers should develop a damn/canal system along the many rivers to control the flow and save water for dry seasons. There must be a lot of water running into the ocean every day, why not save this. Let it back up until the river at least fills its own river bed and then control the release. Not a difficult concept.

Oh ... I see my mistake, ... Control and Thailand not a thing found in here.

[Luk Mhee]

Thailand; over two thousand years old, and still unable to fix its flood or drought problems, and what’s the conclusion? Is it the wrong people in the right jobs? Or is it the right jobs but the wrong people? You decide.

[antimedia]

I'm sure that is a misprint, Thailand = Experts. New policy, cannot continue with the rice subsidy scheme further as due to a lack of water you will have to stop growing rice. If it wasn't for Suthep, none of this would have happened.

[kerrysum]

I would think that engineers should develop a <deleted>/canal system along the many rivers to control the flow and save water for dry seasons. There must be a lot of water running into the ocean every day, why not save this. Let it back up until the river at least fills its own river bed and then control the release. Not a difficult concept.

Oh ... I see my mistake, ... Control and Thailand not a thing found in here.

Perfect ideal,

Let us keep everybody worrying........ We do not have the means to do it, but we can surely complain about it......

If this the best that they can do as experts, so sorry LOS....... Constant dumbing down of people....... Can you fix the rice pledging scam?

kilosierra....

[godden]

Will any one be telling the farmers

[seabass69]

The Department also found that the volume of water in the Gulf of Thailand had drastically decreased but,upon cross referencing with tidal charts, soon realised that it was just low tide

[soalbundy]

That will take care of the excess rice problem.The government will be praised for their foresight for storing so much rice,that was the cunning plan all along.

[soalbundy]

Will any one be telling the farmers

Outside of the elections who cares about the farmers?

[MaxLee]

DROUGHT

Expert warns of severe drought next year

And during the rainy season they're gonna warn severe flooding....

[Thai at Heart]

You know, what they need is some kind of system to pay farmers compensates in times when there isn't enough water. It would be sad if farmers starved because they couldn't grow rice because the water was released to protect from floods.

Could call it the rice scheme or something like that. I wonder if anything like that exists in Thailand.

[marko kok prong]

Pasak river here near wichian buri is almost completely dry, just a few small puddles,my wife blames it on rice farms nearby, that now grow 2or 3 crops a year instead of the one they used to,i spoke to a friend who has been here 10 years,he said he has never seen the country so dry.

[MaxLee]

It doesn't take a bachelor, master or doctoral degree or Expert education to estate, the periods of Drought and floods aka WHEN to release the water and WHEN to fill the dams up...

The answers are all in hand, but the proud authorities just don't wanna FACE them...

[Thai at Heart]

It doesn't take a bachelor, master or doctoral degree or Expert education to estate, the periods of Drought and floods aka WHEN to release the water and WHEN to fill the dams up...

The answers are all in hand, but the proud authorities just don't wanna FACE them...

But it takes a plan to control how.much rice people grow.

[tookwan cottage]

Can we cut back on Songkran then? (Yeah, right!) Or maybe the Thais could learn from Australians and ensure that their sprinklers are strategically positioned to ensure the watering of concrete, in addition to the ludicrous over-cleaning of personal vehicles. Oh wait, the latter is already well established here ...

[worgeordie]

I have my water tank topped up,serviced the pump,as there

is going to be a shortage this year never mind the next.

The farmers are still growing rice and if it all dies they will again

be looking to the Government for compensation.this could be a

ray of light for the government as if drought effects the whole

of S.E.Asia,they might be able to shift some of the huge rice stocks.

regards Worgeordie

[Mentors]

I read since many years about El Nino effects in Thailand, every year. I didn't know that it lasts more than 10 years...

[Chupup]

Like a new .merçe or Rolls ..maybe a.

Like a new merce maybe

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