Water Shortage On Koh Samui

[george]

DROUGHT APPROACHES: Samui braces for worst

KOH SAMUI: -- The resort island of Samui is bracing for another round of water shortages, a village headman said yesterday.

Sakchai Chaitawat, village head of Moo 2 Tambon Maret on Koh Samui, said local residents were already expressing concern over the expected heat wave in April, during which islands in Surat Thani’s Koh Samui district can expect to run short of both raw water and tap water.

He said a number of tourism-related businesses had already arranged for shipments of freshwater from the mainland.

“They need to prepare for an influx of tourists next month,” Sakchai said, adding that the number of tourists usually jumps during the summer months.

He said communities and small hotels that rely solely on tap water would bear the brunt. Many villages and large hotels have artesian wells as backup.

Koh Samui Tourism Association secretary-general Seni Puwasetthaworn said water supplies had not yet reached a crisis point. “Aside from the fact that many local people have access to artesian wells, government assistance is also widespread,” he said.

Tambon Koh Samui mayor Chawengsak Thamteepakul said the local waterworks unit was preparing water to hand out to people next month. He said a 70-rai swamp should provide adequate water supplies.

--The Nation 2004-03-11

[farang62]

I read in the Community MAG for April the future plans for water on Samui.

Lack of money seems to be the problem, and it also seems a lack of resolve.

We design and manufacture R.O. systems here on Samui and do not agree they are expensive. The Thai government is installing 4 large systems on Pi Pi island and there is a very large and very old system on Kow Chang, not being used now as no maintenance was done so it is not cost effective to operate. R.O. systems provide over 40 Billion gallons of water around the world and that is rising every day. Remember only 3% of the water in the world is fresh, and of that less than 1.5% is avaliable and less than .7% in drinkable, something to think about. To many using limited resources.

[taxexile]

what is an r.o. system?

[sbk]

I believe Samui is short on funds for this because all tax money from the three islands (Samui, Phangan, and Tao) goes back to the mainland where very little of it is returned to the islands for local projects. These three islands are the biggest source of tax income for Surat Thani and most of the tax money they generate is spent on the mainland. Two years ago, when Samui, Phangan and Tao faced massive drought, the Surat Thani govt had barges bring fresh water to Samui but Phangan and Tao received nothing.

[farang62]

What is Osmosis? It is the phenomenon of water flow through a semipermeable (porous) membrane that blocks the transport of salt or other solutes through it. Thus if salt water and fresh water are separated by a semipermeable membrane, the fresh water will flow to the saltwater side. (why you die of dehydration if you drink salt water) This flow can be stopped or even reversed by applying pressure on the saltwater side. This phenomenon is called REVERSE OSMOSIS.

[Rooo]

Moving to Samui soo.Seen this device on australian TV,uses humidity to produce drinking water.Minimum requirement 20% humidity.I think I might buy me one.

[Rooo]

The machine is produced by hyflux in singapore & marketed under different names.It uses no chemicals or agents.Worth looking into.

[manao]

Rooo,

For drinking water though it would need to be cheap as the drinking water is about 10bt for a very large bottle (4 or 5 gallons?). The first time you buy it may be more expensive as you need to buy the bottles but after that nice and cheap but saying that I think our latest supplier just gives us the bottles for free. Also if you run out and he hasn't visited for a couple of days you can ring them up and they do a special delivery. Very good service for 10b!

The main problem is for showering, toilet and washing but keep a large plastic dustbin in each bathroom and by the washing machine filled up for these purposes. We have lost the water twice this week but had plenty in our bins during the outage.

[farang62]

The Government has approved 4 Reverse Osmosis systems each 250,000 liters a day on Pi Pi island, The system includes a distribution system.

The reason no fresh water!

[Malice in Wonderland]

It's harldy surprising there is a water shortage when some of the shop or stall owners spend most of their day dousing the road with the stuff to stop their wares getting dusty.Even a table full of hand-carved soaps require this precious resource to be wasted on a daily basis.Doh!!!!

[mrvietnam2001]

Wow this is still going on? My wife and I lived in Santi Thani and left 2 years ago next month and the water situation was horrible.

You should contact Farang62 and ask him to set you up with whatever he thinks you need. He made suggestions to us when we were there and had we stayed, I would have spent some money, but would have at least had clean water.

I mean jeeesh, it really was bad. And it's worse now?

Beautiful place but glad to be outta there.

Sorry for the negative report.

Mr Vietnam