As Thai dams cut water release, promise of rain next month

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As dams cut water release, promise of rain next month
Janjira Pongrai
The Nation


Rice paddy sits in the cracked soil surface, waiting for rainfall, in Phraya Bunleu Canal in Ayutthaya yesterday. The area is said to be suffering the worst drought in 16 years.

BANGKOK: -- WITH water levels in dams "more critical than the 1987 and 1998 severe drought situations", the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) proposed yesterday that two major dams release less water to ensure stocks last for this month.

The Thai Meteorological Department said that downpours to alleviate the situation may not arrive till August.

The Royal Irrigation Department (RID), meanwhile, will send a team to look into the three-metre-deep collapse of a road in Saraburi's Nong Sua district by Klong Rapeepat.

During a meeting at the RID head office, agencies expressed concern over the effect of the drought on the Chao Phraya River Basin. Bhumibol Dam in Tak province, Sirikit Dam in Uttaradit, Khun Dan Prakan Chon Dam in Nakhon Nayok and Pa Sak Jolasid Dam in Lop Buri held water below the minimum reservoir level as of yesterday.

Another 14 dams contained only 30 per cent of capacity, the meeting was told.

The lack of dam-refilling rainfall at reservoirs - especially Bhumibol Dam and Sirikit Dam - in the first five days of July, prompted officials to claim the dams had 42 per cent less water than in 1987.

The RID plan to release eight million cubic metres of water from Bhumibol Dam and 17 million cubic metres per day from Sirikit Dam, must be cut to five million and 11 million respectively, an Egat official proposed. This was to ensure enough water to last the whole of July, or else it would affect the public's water usage, the official said.

RID deputy chief Suthep Noipairoj said a working team would investigate the real cause of the Nong Sua road collapse and check on roads at risk from subsidence. The team would study three possible causes: a drop in the underground water level after the RID failed to "send" water into irrigation areas; farmers' taking too much underground water; or natural conditions such as soil quality.

Council of Engineers deputy secretary-general Amorn Pimanmas said the road collapse might have been the result of a base failure, which could happen to a road running parallel to a canal. A "rapid draw down" phenomenon as water pressure within the soil built up, could lead to a base failure; soil underneath would slide towards the canal causing the road surface to collapse, he explained. But this base failure was more severe than usual, he said.

Amorn said other factors might be at play, such as how the road was built - if it soil was not compressed enough, water erosion, or the road having a heavy weight upon it.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/As-dams-cut-water-release-promise-of-rain-next-mon-30263894.html


-- The Nation 2015-07-07

[BSJ]

It rained here late yesterday arvo. The wife and her brother were working in the mango orchard. I saw the rain coming and rode out to see if they were packing up...they weren't! We all got drenched! But it was badly needed water for the trees. By the time we got back to the village we were shivering and in need of warm showers!

[PepperMe]

A large district of Korat has been without any water for three days and residents have been told that there will be none until at least the 20th June.

The Thais are all talking about it on the local chat sites and are seriously taking the piss out of the promise of rain. Do these idiots really believe they can just run a country on 'hope'?

It is El Nino, there will not be much of a monsoon season this year and what rain we do get will just about bring up the ground water to its normal level before anyone can even think about reservoirs starting to fill back up again. We could well be getting launched into the next dry season with hardly any reserves.

Enough talk about diverting water from the Mekong and other stupid schemes that any half educated Joe can work out is pie in the sky.

Go down the temple and wai for three hours daily instead..... It would be much more effective.

I have heard some crazy assed ideas in my time from so called 'experts' who are supposedly running these things... We can make it rain anywhere.... we can truck in water from other areas... we can divert the Mekong... It will definitely rain next month... Sigh....... You knew El Nino was coming, you should not have let out all the water last year to get the dam levels down. Now you can do nothing about it.

May 2015 and El Nino is just starting.

If we get a strong El Nino, this year will be really bad, by the end of the year and going into next year it will be catastrophic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yr7mq94UMU

Edited July 6, 2015 by PepperMe

[khwaibah]

"As dams cut water release, promise of rain next month"

The check is in the mail and I promise not to c.. n .....

Edited July 7, 2015 by khwaibah

[ratcatcher]

It rained here late yesterday arvo. The wife and her brother were working in the mango orchard. I saw the rain coming and rode out to see if they were packing up...they weren't! We all got drenched! But it was badly needed water for the trees. By the time we got back to the village we were shivering and in need of warm showers!

"It rained here late yesterday arvo."

Where?

[Yunla]

I worry about this a lot, not so much for myself because I only need small drinking water for one person, but I do worry about families and businesses that need a lot of water just to keep going. On one level I am hoping that this current crisis will be a wake-up call. It is already the worst situation for thirty years and it may well get a lot worse, and my only hope is that this will be a harsh reminder to those in charge, that they have to plan ahead and invest in reliable water systems for the future. This is one of the areas in governance where even the slightest laxness can have terrible consequences. Nature is sending us a reminder, and we would all do well to listen to her this time round.

[Vogele123]

A large district of Korat has been without any water for three days and residents have been told that there will be none until at least the 20th June.

The Thais are all talking about it on the local chat sites and are seriously taking the piss out of the promise of rain. Do these idiots really believe they can just run a country on 'hope'?

It is El Nino, there will not be much of a monsoon season this year and what rain we do get will just about bring up the ground water to its normal level before anyone can even think about reservoirs starting to fill back up again. We could well be getting launched into the next dry season with hardly any reserves.

Enough talk about diverting water from the Mekong and other stupid schemes that any half educated Joe can work out is pie in the sky.

Go down the temple and wai for three hours daily instead..... It would be much more effective.

I have heard some crazy assed ideas in my time from so called 'experts' who are supposedly running these things... We can make it rain anywhere.... we can truck in water from other areas... we can divert the Mekong... It will definitely rain next month... Sigh....... You knew El Nino was coming, you should not have let out all the water last year to get the dam levels down. Now you can do nothing about it.

May 2015 and El Nino is just starting.

If we get a strong El Nino, this year will be really bad, by the end of the year and going into next year it will be catastrophic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yr7mq94UMU

Very, very true.

I think a lot of Thais seem blissfully unaware just how serious things are going to get - Even if they get monsoon rains 24/7 for a month. Next year is when it is really going to hurt. Meanwhile it is just business as usual.

[ezzra]

It rained here late yesterday arvo. The wife and her brother were working in the mango orchard. I saw the rain coming and rode out to see if they were packing up...they weren't! We all got drenched! But it was badly needed water for the trees. By the time we got back to the village we were shivering and in need of warm showers!

"It rained here late yesterday arvo."

Where?

Here ........

[Lupatria]

Maybe its time to rethink the idea to run an entire country's agriculture solely on rice which needs much more water than most other plants.

[Srikcir]

Why promises for rain?

"Since March 1 [2015], the Department of Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation within the Irrigation Department has conducted 3,100 cloud-seeding operations, bringing rainfalls in 95 percent of target areas. Seven million cubic meters are added to four main dams along the Chao Phraya River daily. The Department has also planned to expand its rain-making mission in Chiang Mai and Nakhon Sawan provinces ..."

The Government should be guaranteeing rain.

Just add more planes and locations. Like magic all Thailand's water problems will be resolved.

[Chao Lao Beach]

A possible drought in NSW in Australia has what impact on Thailand ? Less Aussies going to Phuket somhow ?

[MESmith]

Rice farmers where I live east of Chiang Mai continue to pump groundwater to fill their rice fields. How long before everyone's wells run dry?

[noosard]

It rained here yesterday as well

Udon thani

Really broke the drought

Dust got wet

puddles lay around for a couple of hours

Amount 11mm

Edited July 7, 2015 by noosard

[Mot Dang]

It rained here late yesterday arvo. The wife and her brother were working in the mango orchard. I saw the rain coming and rode out to see if they were packing up...they weren't! We all got drenched! But it was badly needed water for the trees. By the time we got back to the village we were shivering and in need of warm showers!

Showers ? Man your lucky we have had to revert back to using buckets from a tub. You would think we had gone back to 1981. We are bringing water up from the dam in jerry cans, the dam administrators wont turn on the pumps. You should hear the lazy kids of the village complaining about having to carry water, they have never had to do it before. I remember my wife and sisters (25 to 30 yo) in the early 80's, bringing up water (not because of drought, but because there was no pump), two 20 lt. jerry cans on a bamboo pole.

My God I hope it rains soon where we are in the Buriram panhandle. Some years of past droughts we have been able to fill our rice storage room with rice to feed the family for a year, but nothing for sale to the co-op. This year we are easy a 6 weeks behind our first planting. And not too much left in the Ban Kow.

[PepperMe]

A possible drought in NSW in Australia has what impact on Thailand ? Less Aussies going to Phuket somhow ?

Sheeesh.

El Nino affects the entire western pacific. In case you did not know, the monsoon for most of Thailand comes from western pacific storms. The south gets a little extra from storms coming in from the Andaman sea and Indian ocean, but the highly populated north does not get these rains.

The whole of China and SE Asia will be affected badly, although most other countries have better water management and have better ability to harness water than Thailand.

So to recap... El Nino = no storms in the western pacific = no rain for SE Asia, and this El Nino cycle is forcast to be very severe and will peak in Septenmbe/October.... which happens to be our monsoon season.

40 million living north of BKK, this could get very messy indeed.

[vogie]

It rained here late yesterday arvo. The wife and her brother were working in the mango orchard. I saw the rain coming and rode out to see if they were packing up...they weren't! We all got drenched! But it was badly needed water for the trees. By the time we got back to the village we were shivering and in need of warm showers!

Showers ? Man your lucky we have had to revert back to using buckets from a tub. You would think we had gone back to 1981. We are bringing water up from the dam in jerry cans, the dam administrators wont turn on the pumps. You should hear the lazy kids of the village complaining about having to carry water, they have never had to do it before. I remember my wife and sisters (25 to 30 yo) in the early 80's, bringing up water (not because of drought, but because there was no pump), two 20 lt. jerry cans on a bamboo pole.

My God I hope it rains soon where we are in the Buriram panhandle. Some years of past droughts we have been able to fill our rice storage room with rice to feed the family for a year, but nothing for sale to the co-op. This year we are easy a 6 weeks behind our first planting. And not too much left in the Ban Kow.

"Showers ? Man your lucky we have had to revert back to using buckets from a tub"

Buckets from a tub, luxury, we have to rely on our neighbours spitting on us.

[jackanapes]

why is Thailand different from other countries ,they give one of the reasons for road collapses is a soil base not compressed enough you don't use soil as a base for a road its usually stone chippings compressed and covered in tar .

[Borzandy]

why is Thailand different from other countries ,they give one of the reasons for road collapses is a soil base not compressed enough you don't use soil as a base for a road its usually stone chippings compressed and covered in tar .

Why did you just discovered Thailand is different from other countries????

[geriatrickid]

It rained here late yesterday arvo. The wife and her brother were working in the mango orchard. I saw the rain coming and rode out to see if they were packing up...they weren't! We all got drenched! But it was badly needed water for the trees. By the time we got back to the village we were shivering and in need of warm showers!

Showers ? Man your lucky we have had to revert back to using buckets from a tub. You would think we had gone back to 1981. We are bringing water up from the dam in jerry cans, the dam administrators wont turn on the pumps. You should hear the lazy kids of the village complaining about having to carry water, they have never had to do it before. I remember my wife and sisters (25 to 30 yo) in the early 80's, bringing up water (not because of drought, but because there was no pump), two 20 lt. jerry cans on a bamboo pole.

My God I hope it rains soon where we are in the Buriram panhandle. Some years of past droughts we have been able to fill our rice storage room with rice to feed the family for a year, but nothing for sale to the co-op. This year we are easy a 6 weeks behind our first planting. And not too much left in the Ban Kow.

"Showers ? Man your lucky we have had to revert back to using buckets from a tub"

Buckets from a tub, luxury, we have to rely on our neighbours spitting on us.

Why do I thinl some people have been watching too much Python

[vogie]

It rained here late yesterday arvo. The wife and her brother were working in the mango orchard. I saw the rain coming and rode out to see if they were packing up...they weren't! We all got drenched! But it was badly needed water for the trees. By the time we got back to the village we were shivering and in need of warm showers!

Showers ? Man your lucky we have had to revert back to using buckets from a tub. You would think we had gone back to 1981. We are bringing water up from the dam in jerry cans, the dam administrators wont turn on the pumps. You should hear the lazy kids of the village complaining about having to carry water, they have never had to do it before. I remember my wife and sisters (25 to 30 yo) in the early 80's, bringing up water (not because of drought, but because there was no pump), two 20 lt. jerry cans on a bamboo pole.

My God I hope it rains soon where we are in the Buriram panhandle. Some years of past droughts we have been able to fill our rice storage room with rice to feed the family for a year, but nothing for sale to the co-op. This year we are easy a 6 weeks behind our first planting. And not too much left in the Ban Kow.

"Showers ? Man your lucky we have had to revert back to using buckets from a tub"

Buckets from a tub, luxury, we have to rely on our neighbours spitting on us.

Why do I thinl some people have been watching too much Python

And try telling that to the kids today, they just wont believe you.

[somo]

It rained here late yesterday arvo. The wife and her brother were working in the mango orchard. I saw the rain coming and rode out to see if they were packing up...they weren't! We all got drenched! But it was badly needed water for the trees. By the time we got back to the village we were shivering and in need of warm showers!

Showers ? Man your lucky we have had to revert back to using buckets from a tub. You would think we had gone back to 1981. We are bringing water up from the dam in jerry cans, the dam administrators wont turn on the pumps. You should hear the lazy kids of the village complaining about having to carry water, they have never had to do it before. I remember my wife and sisters (25 to 30 yo) in the early 80's, bringing up water (not because of drought, but because there was no pump), two 20 lt. jerry cans on a bamboo pole.

My God I hope it rains soon where we are in the Buriram panhandle. Some years of past droughts we have been able to fill our rice storage room with rice to feed the family for a year, but nothing for sale to the co-op. This year we are easy a 6 weeks behind our first planting. And not too much left in the Ban Kow.

"Showers ? Man your lucky we have had to revert back to using buckets from a tub"

Buckets from a tub, luxury, we have to rely on our neighbours spitting on us.

You are lucky, around here they charge for spitting on you. Getting pissed on is just too expensive.

[Mot Dang]

It rained here late yesterday arvo. The wife and her brother were working in the mango orchard. I saw the rain coming and rode out to see if they were packing up...they weren't! We all got drenched! But it was badly needed water for the trees. By the time we got back to the village we were shivering and in need of warm showers!

Showers ? Man your lucky we have had to revert back to using buckets from a tub. You would think we had gone back to 1981. We are bringing water up from the dam in jerry cans, the dam administrators wont turn on the pumps. You should hear the lazy kids of the village complaining about having to carry water, they have never had to do it before. I remember my wife and sisters (25 to 30 yo) in the early 80's, bringing up water (not because of drought, but because there was no pump), two 20 lt. jerry cans on a bamboo pole.

My God I hope it rains soon where we are in the Buriram panhandle. Some years of past droughts we have been able to fill our rice storage room with rice to feed the family for a year, but nothing for sale to the co-op. This year we are easy a 6 weeks behind our first planting. And not too much left in the Ban Kow.

"Showers ? Man your lucky we have had to revert back to using buckets from a tub"

Buckets from a tub, luxury, we have to rely on our neighbors spitting on us.

Definitely Monty Python. Very visual.

[NoshowJones]

I worry about this a lot, not so much for myself because I only need small drinking water for one person, but I do worry about families and businesses that need a lot of water just to keep going. On one level I am hoping that this current crisis will be a wake-up call. It is already the worst situation for thirty years and it may well get a lot worse, and my only hope is that this will be a harsh reminder to those in charge, that they have to plan ahead and invest in reliable water systems for the future. This is one of the areas in governance where even the slightest laxness can have terrible consequences. Nature is sending us a reminder, and we would all do well to listen to her this time round.

I don't suppose stopping throwing water at Songcran will enter any Thai minds, no matter how bad any water shortage is.

[Baerboxer]

It rained here yesterday as well

Udon thani

Really broke the drought

Dust got wet

puddles lay around for a couple of hours

Amount 11mm

We had a downpour in Pathumthani late yesterday pm - lasted about 5-10 minutes and then quickly dried up.

[Baerboxer]

why is Thailand different from other countries ,they give one of the reasons for road collapses is a soil base not compressed enough you don't use soil as a base for a road its usually stone chippings compressed and covered in tar .

No one told them that part. How many stone crushing plant you seen in Thailand? Not even convicts with hammers!

I'm amazed how often I see roads constructed on compressed earth, albeit sometimes solid looking clay. Then tarmac, then it sinks after a few month usage.

Maybe those who get the road building repair contracts like it just fine the way it is!

[Guest]

Although I appreciate the tutorial on El Nino, and the effect on .... Australia ...

A useful tool is Google Earth and its ability to look at global patterns and change settings to see what is really going on.

Please follow this link:

http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/isobaric/500hPa/overlay=total_cloud_water/orthographic=98.53,10.98,1821

Here are the settings employed in this overview.

As you see i have it set to 5,000 M and along with wind current, the (TCW) Total Cloud water.

If you look at this daily, then check weather conditions in areas of interest, you can eventually learn how to see what is going on, and even predict future events.

Edited July 7, 2015 by Guest

[NongKhaiKid]

I worry about this a lot, not so much for myself because I only need small drinking water for one person, but I do worry about families and businesses that need a lot of water just to keep going. On one level I am hoping that this current crisis will be a wake-up call. It is already the worst situation for thirty years and it may well get a lot worse, and my only hope is that this will be a harsh reminder to those in charge, that they have to plan ahead and invest in reliable water systems for the future. This is one of the areas in governance where even the slightest laxness can have terrible consequences. Nature is sending us a reminder, and we would all do well to listen to her this time round.

I don't suppose stopping throwing water at Songcran will enter any Thai minds, no matter how bad any water shortage is.

I remember many years ago in Pattaya the annual waste of water took place followed a couple of days later by their special Songkran day and the very next day the mayor made an appeal for water conservation. TIT

[winstonc]

Maybe its time to rethink the idea to run an entire country's agriculture solely on rice which needs much more water than most other plants.

what and take them out of there comfort zone bloody mayhem will ensue hahahahahaha

[Jimlove]

Meanwhile its time to buy Submarines for 36bn THB and possibly some helicopters from the time of the korean-war ... Amazing Thailand

[Guest]

I worry about this a lot, not so much for myself because I only need small drinking water for one person, but I do worry about families and businesses that need a lot of water just to keep going. On one level I am hoping that this current crisis will be a wake-up call. It is already the worst situation for thirty years and it may well get a lot worse, and my only hope is that this will be a harsh reminder to those in charge, that they have to plan ahead and invest in reliable water systems for the future. This is one of the areas in governance where even the slightest laxness can have terrible consequences. Nature is sending us a reminder, and we would all do well to listen to her this time round.

I don't suppose stopping throwing water at Songcran will enter any Thai minds, no matter how bad any water shortage is.

I remember many years ago in Pattaya the annual waste of water took place followed a couple of days later by their special Songkran day and the very next day the mayor made an appeal for water conservation. TIT

Yes, of course, a global phenomenon ... crushing droughts .. can be resolved by restricting a few days of people throwing buckets of water.

Call us with your freshman humor ,, AFTER California stops watering the golf courses, and the pool at your condo is .... empty.

Just kidding, i know you guys can not pass up ANY opportunity to piss down Thailand's neck.

Enjoy this time, because NOTHING is funnier than a massive drought, shortage of food, and hard working families losing the farm .. right?