Almost 60 per cent of Thailand hit by drought

BANGKOK, 19 April 2014 (NNT) - More than half of the kingdom has declared as drought disaster zones, according to the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department (DDPM) on Saturday.

Nearly 17,000 villages in 40 provinces, mostly in the North and Northeast have been hit by severe drought. This means more than half of the country will be faced with dwindling water resources.

Previously, the Meteorological Department has warned that Thailand 's water situation this year and the next might be critical due to lack of rainfall, which leads to El Nino weather phenomenon .

The department said the current volume of water held in major dams might not be enough to meet demand this year.

-- NNT 2014-04-19

They will be able to use the flood budget to try and alleviate this problem.

Added to the problems caused by the rice pledging scheme, and it flow on effects, this maybe the last straw for some of the farming families and with the flow on effectto related business, Tough times,

This must be a job for the great prophet Plod.

I'd love to see the statistics on where all the water was used. Rice will be a bug chunk

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Plodprasop,.bring us your water pushers.

to many people making 2or 3 rice crops a year.

yet they still wasted millions of litres of water over the Songkran celebrations, thats really smart thinking. What a pack of idiots, if water levels are that bad why waste it, it is equivelent of people throwing away food while they starve, bloody dropkicks and now they all want sympathy and govt help no doubt to grow crops etc

Was this staggering statistic available before Songkran or has it just been discovered ?

Now to Phase 2, the pleas to conserve water.

How do low water levels in Thailand lead to an El Nino effect? Surely one jests, or was advised about this by a Chulalongkorn expert? Or is there real evidence of this phenomenon? Anybody?

Edited April 19, 201412 yr by Thaiisnotrequired

Same story at this time every year.

Same story at this time every year.

Nope. In 2011, areas where dams were higher than normal were already being flooded in May... as the dams let out early waters.... which raised ground water levels which couldn't cope later on in the year, and hence led to the run down the country!

Neither 2012, nor 2013 were also drought-ridden at this time.

There is always plenty of ground water that can be pumped up, so I'd rather hear of drought than heavy rain at this time. Nobody wants a repeat of 3 years ago.

yet they still wasted millions of litres of water over the Songkran celebrations, thats really smart thinking. What a pack of idiots, if water levels are that bad why waste it, it is equivelent of people throwing away food while they starve, bloody dropkicks and now they all want sympathy and govt help no doubt to grow crops etc

I agree with you 100% plus. The bloodly idiots both Thai and Foreigners are throwing water away here in Pattaya today and then they will be moaning that there is a water shortage. And know I am not a kill joy just someone with a sense of responsibility which is obviously in short supply here in Thailand!

The water for two rice crops ended up strewn over the road during songkran............ahhhh.........but it was sanook.

Same story at this time every year.

Nope. In 2011, areas where dams were higher than normal were already being flooded in May... as the dams let out early waters.... which raised ground water levels which couldn't cope later on in the year, and hence led to the run down the country!

Neither 2012, nor 2013 were also drought-ridden at this time.

There is always plenty of ground water that can be pumped up, so I'd rather hear of drought than heavy rain at this time. Nobody wants a repeat of 3 years ago.

i think your both right but alas doesnt matter how much ground water there is who ever is in charge wont pay any heed to your thoughts this country has had eons to sort out the water problem ..but no lets wait till the crops are ruined or a load of people drown then set up 4 commitees to look said minor irritation..and ponder until were forced into action..

The water for two rice crops ended up strewn over the road during songkran............ahhhh.........but it was sanook.

Most of the water discharged during Songkran drains back into the sub-aquifers, and Thailand has many naturally controlled aquifers and sub-aquifers. There are many trenches (natural) which control streambed levels and backfills of low permeability, which permit retaining sub-ground flows and retention above low permeables, which also permit saturated alluvium pumping (which Thailand has much of, including many MARs). The hydreology of most of Thailand, especially the Northern subtables and their groundwater managed aquifer recharge systems adsorb excesses received from the ground levels, and are pumped adequately, all the way from Chiang Mai, across to Sukothai, to their east and south and in central regions. It's a fallacy that Songkran is a waste of water, as it is adsorbed naturally and flows again into the aquifers for re-pumping. The rice growing areas are never at risk, unless pumping is ordered to be limited! And no... I'm not talking out of my anus...

Same story at this time every year.

Nope. In 2011, areas where dams were higher than normal were already being flooded in May... as the dams let out early waters.... which raised ground water levels which couldn't cope later on in the year, and hence led to the run down the country!

Neither 2012, nor 2013 were also drought-ridden at this time.

There is always plenty of ground water that can be pumped up, so I'd rather hear of drought than heavy rain at this time. Nobody wants a repeat of 3 years ago.

i think your both right but alas doesnt matter how much ground water there is who ever is in charge wont pay any heed to your thoughts this country has had eons to sort out the water problem ..but no lets wait till the crops are ruined or a load of people drown then set up 4 commitees to look said minor irritation..and ponder until were forced into action..

I'm glad you observed 'whoever is in charge'... as most of the pumps are owned by the richer farmers, you know... the one's the govnt had paid so far, and those farmers rape the poorer farmers to pay for pumped water at extortionate rates, when it costs sod all (although they did invest in the pumps - which themselves are not actually that expensive). It is lack of education - once again - which restricts the poorer farmers, as they could group together locally and easily afford pumps of their own. Jing Jing!

Coming straight after Songkran...WOW, I actually thought that maybe just maybe situations like this could have been prevented in some way.

OOPS! Silly me.

Sanuk Sanan come first!

to many people making 2or 3 rice crops a year.

to many people talk bullshit!

The water for two rice crops ended up strewn over the road during songkran............ahhhh.........but it was sanook.

Most of the water discharged during Songkran drains back into the sub-aquifers, and Thailand has many naturally controlled aquifers and sub-aquifers. There are many trenches (natural) which control streambed levels and backfills of low permeability, which permit retaining sub-ground flows and retention above low permeables, which also permit saturated alluvium pumping (which Thailand has much of, including many MARs). The hydreology of most of Thailand, especially the Northern subtables and their groundwater managed aquifer recharge systems adsorb excesses received from the ground levels, and are pumped adequately, all the way from Chiang Mai, across to Sukothai, to their east and south and in central regions. It's a fallacy that Songkran is a waste of water, as it is adsorbed naturally and flows again into the aquifers for re-pumping. The rice growing areas are never at risk, unless pumping is ordered to be limited! And no... I'm not talking out of my anus...

Delighted to know that............I'll sleep easy tonight

They can have what we are getting.

to many people making 2or 3 rice crops a year.

to many people talk bullshit!

i was told this by a Thai,whom i would imagine knows more about the subject than you sir.

People were warned of the lack of water in the twp major dams (down to approx 45%) BEFORE Songkran, but since nobody likes a party pooper, just carry on, plant two or three crops, throw millions of liters around for fun, and then march on BKK to protest having no water. This is the true 'uneducation' that some people refer to when talking of the rural poor, not able to see past 3 days ahead of them.

Oz

to many people making 2or 3 rice crops a year.

to many people talk bullshit!

i was told this by a Thai,whom i would imagine knows more about the subject than you sir.

what ever you say

The water for two rice crops ended up strewn over the road during songkran............ahhhh.........but it was sanook.

Most of the water discharged during Songkran drains back into the sub-aquifers, and Thailand has many naturally controlled aquifers and sub-aquifers. There are many trenches (natural) which control streambed levels and backfills of low permeability, which permit retaining sub-ground flows and retention above low permeables, which also permit saturated alluvium pumping (which Thailand has much of, including many MARs). The hydreology of most of Thailand, especially the Northern subtables and their groundwater managed aquifer recharge systems adsorb excesses received from the ground levels, and are pumped adequately, all the way from Chiang Mai, across to Sukothai, to their east and south and in central regions. It's a fallacy that Songkran is a waste of water, as it is adsorbed naturally and flows again into the aquifers for re-pumping. The rice growing areas are never at risk, unless pumping is ordered to be limited! And no... I'm not talking out of my anus...

I'm sure some of what you say is true but remember that when the water is throw around on the hot city streets, much of it is quickly evaporated into the atmosphere and never makes its way back into the underground water table.

No matter what you say, sooner or later there's gonna be floods in Thailand again....

It's a good thing the entire country just spent an entire week WASTING water by throwing it on each other.

This place gets dumber by the day.

On second thought, that was a rude thing to say. I guess I just don't understand Thainess.

No matter what you say, sooner or later there's gonna be floods in Thailand again....

Not in Bangkok.

It has started to rain. It doesn't rain everywhere, but where it rains, it rains buckets of water. We are just in April and most areas of Thailand receive the normal amount of rain for this time. Soon in a few months they will be complaining of floods and blaming "La Nina"

come next october, it will be flooding in the headlines