Water level in Thailand's major dams remains low despite continuing rainfall

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RAINY SEASON
Water level in major dams remains low despite continuing rainfall
The Nation



The Royal Irrigation Department yesterday urged people to conserve water due to the low level stored in major |dams.

BANGKOK: -- News of the dam situation came as Ranong residents were told to brace for rain, flooding and large waves today and tomorrow, due to the influence of Typhoon Kalmaegi.

The department's Centre for Water Situation Analysis and Computing reported via its Facebook page that the country's major dams currently contain 58 per cent of their combined capacity on average, or 40,641 million cubic metres of water.

As a result, the dams could handle the current heavy rain, it said.

The department said major northern dams could support 13,500 million cubic metres of water, while major dams in the Northeast could support 3,300 million cubic metres and dams in the central and eastern regions could take another 1,100 million cubic metres.

Although the water level in many dams has risen, most were still considered low.

Because of that, the department said downstream farmers should follow the water situation closely and adhere to local irrigation authority requirements regarding the use of water.

Phichit flood into third week

In Phichit, many homes in tambon Ban Boong, Muang district, remained under one metre of water yesterday for a third straight week, with the water level expected to rise because of continuous rain.

Sanom Intheun, 64, said the situation in his low-laying neighbourhood was exacerbated by canals being blocked by weeds like water hyacinth.

In Chon Buri's Bang Lamung district, all-night downpours resulted in flood-water bringing down a brick wall, which collapsed onto two cars at about 11am yesterday.

In Trang, seaside and mountainside residents have been warned about the possibility of flooding, large waves and landslides from yesterday until Thursday.

About 800 rai (316 acres) of farmland has been flooded in Trang, while at-risk residents prepared to evacuate and move their belongings to safer places.

Fishermen in the province have not worked for two weeks due to large waves.

The sea conditions have also deterred any attempt to retrieve the two cement-transport ships that sunk off Koh Libong on September 7.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Water-level-in-major-dams-remains-low-despite-cont-30243360.html


-- The Nation 2014-09-16

[Rimbuman]

State of the art knob head management, again and again and again.

[robblok]

I really dont get it why they dont do something about the water hyacinths blocking it all. This is the same problem every year. Maybe they get the budget but decide to steal it and not do a thing. I mean everyone knows this is a problem.

[halloween]

It gets tricky near the end of the wet season when dams are hopefully near full. When a big storm approaches an informed(?) guess has to be made as to how much rain it will drop and where. Then decisions have to be made in regard to the dams conflicting dual purposes, flood mitigation and water storage.

Get it wrong and forced heavy releases cause flooding downstream OR the dam ends up well below optimum storage. Either way, there will plenty of blame and finger-pointing. Get it right hardly anybody notices.

[EricBerg]

Surely there isn't a damwater pledging scheme? Or did I miss something?

[robblok]

It gets tricky near the end of the wet season when dams are hopefully near full. When a big storm approaches an informed(?) guess has to be made as to how much rain it will drop and where. Then decisions have to be made in regard to the dams conflicting dual purposes, flood mitigation and water storage.

Get it wrong and forced heavy releases cause flooding downstream OR the dam ends up well below optimum storage. Either way, there will plenty of blame and finger-pointing. Get it right hardly anybody notices.

True.. but after being flooded because of the dams before i prefer they err on the safe side.. but farmers prefer they take the risk. Its hard to keep everyone happy but a repeat of 2011 is far worse then drought for farmers.

[halloween]

It gets tricky near the end of the wet season when dams are hopefully near full. When a big storm approaches an informed(?) guess has to be made as to how much rain it will drop and where. Then decisions have to be made in regard to the dams conflicting dual purposes, flood mitigation and water storage.

Get it wrong and forced heavy releases cause flooding downstream OR the dam ends up well below optimum storage. Either way, there will plenty of blame and finger-pointing. Get it right hardly anybody notices.

True.. but after being flooded because of the dams before i prefer they err on the safe side.. but farmers prefer they take the risk. Its hard to keep everyone happy but a repeat of 2011 is far worse then drought for farmers.

You have my sympathy, but shouldn't blame the dam for your problem. Rather, blame the way it was operated; in that case a political decision was made to operate the dam much more as storage than flood mitigation. It is hard to imagine a flood scenario where the PEAK flow out of a dam exceeds the peak flow in. The water flowing in has to raise the level of the dammed area above the spillway before the outflow matches the inflow, but it will continue to flow strongly even after the inflow has subsided.

[belg]

wasn't there a massive amount from a chinese dam on the way to thailand ?

[halloween]

wasn't there a massive amount from a chinese dam on the way to thailand ?

The article began with IF then went on to present the worst case scenario of something that never happened.

[Chao Lao Beach]

Wait till half way therough wet season to clear the hyacinths,

How does it come to this situation in the first place ?

Edited September 16, 2014 by Chao Lao Beach