How bad is drought?

[billd766]

If your water pump is prone to downtime, then do as the Thais do and put a plastic bin in your shower area as a backup.

A big bucket wont help if there is nothing coming out of the tap.

You could always try filling it up and keeping it filled when there is water.

That is what all us "stupid" people living in rural Thailand do.

6 hours without water. What a whiner.

Try relying on water delivery by the local fire truck every 3 weeks for 6 months and see if you can survive.

Hot water try this. Buy your water from 7/11

Edited September 14, 2015 by billd766

[KittenKong]

You could always try filling it up and keeping it filled when there is water.

That is what all us "stupid" people living in rural Thailand do.

6 hours without water. What a whiner.

Try relying on water delivery by the local fire truck every 3 weeks for 6 months and see if you can survive.

You are still missing the point. If this dry weather continues in Pattaya there may be no water in the taps indefinitely until such time as it rains properly and re-fills the three lakes that supply all the water in the area. In my condo building we can have water delivered by tanker and it will supply the taps and the pool in the normal way, but again the problem is that the tankers get their water from those same three lakes which are nearly empty. Empty lakes = no water. Also I doubt there are enough tankers in town to supply water to everyone, even if they dont have to drive many extra miles to collect it. Water usage in my building alone is in excess of 5000m3 per month, and there are hundreds of other buildings like mine here.

You may have chosen to live a rural existence in the back of beyond where shortages are par for the course, and good luck to you, but personally I'm not the slightest bit interested in living like that. I like services that work reliably - no power cuts, no DSL dropouts, water in taps, cable TV, no floods and no dirt track roads - and that's why I chose to live where I do. Our current near shortage of water is due to very unusual weather conditions and not to poor infrastructure, which I suspect your apparently much more common shortages are due to.

[chiang mai]

A couple of minor points:

Trivia perhaps but for clarity: KK mentions her building demand is in excess of 5,000m3 per month, given an average two person home uses 8,000m3 per month I suggest her building demand is far higher.

Water infrastructure failings seem about the same every where in Thailand, the availability of a local storage tank smooths out those failings from a consumer perspective -- we store 1,000 litres and as a consequence never see our supply shut off for any reason.

[elgenon]

You could always try filling it up and keeping it filled when there is water.

That is what all us "stupid" people living in rural Thailand do.

6 hours without water. What a whiner.

Try relying on water delivery by the local fire truck every 3 weeks for 6 months and see if you can survive.

You are still missing the point. If this dry weather continues in Pattaya there may be no water in the taps indefinitely until such time as it rains properly and re-fills the three lakes that supply all the water in the area. In my condo building we can have water delivered by tanker and it will supply the taps and the pool in the normal way, but again the problem is that the tankers get their water from those same three lakes which are nearly empty. Empty lakes = no water. Also I doubt there are enough tankers in town to supply water to everyone, even if they dont have to drive many extra miles to collect it. Water usage in my building alone is in excess of 5000m3 per month, and there are hundreds of other buildings like mine here.

You may have chosen to live a rural existence in the back of beyond where shortages are par for the course, and good luck to you, but personally I'm not the slightest bit interested in living like that. I like services that work reliably - no power cuts, no DSL dropouts, water in taps, cable TV, no floods and no dirt track roads - and that's why I chose to live where I do. Our current near shortage of water is due to very unusual weather conditions and not to poor infrastructure, which I suspect your apparently much more common shortages are due to.

Good reply KittenKong. I hope this serious question does not devolve into to seeing who's ----- is the biggest. What has that got to do with the crisis?

And what about the companies that make your beer and drinking water? What if they can't get water anymore?

BTW. Not sure if mismanagement of the dams factors into this. The general blamed the prior administration for releasing too much water from the dams in anticipation of big rains. Of course he has been in charge for a while now.

[chiang mai]

Most of the bottled drinking water supplied in Thailand comes from aquifers so bottled water is far less of an issue.

http://www.thailandguru.com/drinking-water-thailand.html (see half way down the page).

[Sophon]

A couple of minor points:

Trivia perhaps but for clarity: KK mentions her building demand is in excess of 5,000m3 per month, given an average two person home uses 8,000m3 per month I suggest her building demand is far higher.

Water infrastructure failings seem about the same every where in Thailand, the availability of a local storage tank smooths out those failings from a consumer perspective -- we store 1,000 litres and as a consequence never see our supply shut off for any reason.

I think you may have your units (liters and m³) mixed up there, Chiang Mai. There is no way an average two person home uses 8,000 m³ per month, I am one half of such a two person house hold and we use on average about 10 m³ each month.

8,000 m³ would cost us 48,000 Baht at our current rate of 6 Baht per unit.

Sophon

Edited September 15, 2015 by Sophon

[craigt3365]

If your water pump is prone to downtime, then do as the Thais do and put a plastic bin in your shower area as a backup.

A big bucket wont help if there is nothing coming out of the tap.

The idea is to fill it up before the tap goes dry. We have a good water supply in our village but we still store several days of water in an underground tank on the off chance the main water supply is down for maintenance or something.

We have 2 very large tanks for water storage. Here, south of Pattaya, the water supply is not reliable. Part of the day it's on (usually at night) and good portions of the day it's off. Big storage tanks are a necessity.

We went without water for 3 days last year, it was planned, so we knew about it. I've got 5-6 people in this house. The big tank lasted a bit over one day. The other tank is only used for the garden and even though it is very big also, can easily be emptied in one day watering the garden and taking care of the pool. We had a tanker come in and though the water looked clean, we know it comes from the ponds behind the houses...where the water buffalo roam...among other things. Yuck.

Having lived in S. California during the drought periods, I knew what to do. If it's brown, flush it down. If it's yellow, it's mellow. The standard phrase during a drought in California! LOL Plus, very short showers...very short.

[chiang mai]

A couple of minor points:

Trivia perhaps but for clarity: KK mentions her building demand is in excess of 5,000m3 per month, given an average two person home uses 8,000m3 per month I suggest her building demand is far higher.

Water infrastructure failings seem about the same every where in Thailand, the availability of a local storage tank smooths out those failings from a consumer perspective -- we store 1,000 litres and as a consequence never see our supply shut off for any reason.

I think you may have your units (liters and m³) mixed up there, Chiang Mai. There is no way an average two person home uses 8,000 m³ per month, I am one half of such a two person house hold and we use on average about 10 m³ each month.

8,000 m³ would cost us 48,000 Baht at our current rate of 6 Baht per unit.

Sophon

Well spotted that man, just wanted to see if you were paying attention and you were! Now stay alert because there will be another test shortly.

Apologies to all.

[KittenKong]

Pattaya is a particularly difficult place for water supply as it is has a lot of high-rise buildings and intensive usage by people who are accustomed to Western standards. Also, as I mentioned, it's piped supply comes solely from three lakes which themselves are filled by rainfall and not by year-round flowing rivers. We have no big rivers anywhere near here, and precious few small ones for that matter. And it's one of the driest parts of Thailand too.

The other thing that should be borne in mind is that the El Nino event of 1997 caused huge drought problems across SE Asia and contributed to the economic collapse of the region at that time.

We are in another El Nino period and things may get a lot worse before they get better.

[billd766]

You could always try filling it up and keeping it filled when there is water.

That is what all us "stupid" people living in rural Thailand do.

6 hours without water. What a whiner.

Try relying on water delivery by the local fire truck every 3 weeks for 6 months and see if you can survive.

You are still missing the point. If this dry weather continues in Pattaya there may be no water in the taps indefinitely until such time as it rains properly and re-fills the three lakes that supply all the water in the area. In my condo building we can have water delivered by tanker and it will supply the taps and the pool in the normal way, but again the problem is that the tankers get their water from those same three lakes which are nearly empty. Empty lakes = no water. Also I doubt there are enough tankers in town to supply water to everyone, even if they dont have to drive many extra miles to collect it. Water usage in my building alone is in excess of 5000m3 per month, and there are hundreds of other buildings like mine here.

You may have chosen to live a rural existence in the back of beyond where shortages are par for the course, and good luck to you, but personally I'm not the slightest bit interested in living like that. I like services that work reliably - no power cuts, no DSL dropouts, water in taps, cable TV, no floods and no dirt track roads - and that's why I chose to live where I do. Our current near shortage of water is due to very unusual weather conditions and not to poor infrastructure, which I suspect your apparently much more common shortages are due to.

Our water problem oddly enough are similar to yours.

When we first moved here in 2003 the nearest houses were at least 500 metres away on either side and there was plenty of water pressure and no shortages. There are now houses everywhere, 3 resorts and the infrastructure is still the same hence the "normal" dry season water shortages exacerbated by El Nino.

There has been a survey for a dam which may well have fixed most of the problems that involved putting a dam across the klong and flooding an area of farmland which does not have full chanote land title. The PuYai Ban stopped this by convincing many of the villagers that it would be a bad idea (plus none of the land which would be flooded and compensation paid was his).

I wonder what the villagers are thinking about that decision now.

[55Jay]

You could always try filling it up and keeping it filled when there is water.

That is what all us "stupid" people living in rural Thailand do.

6 hours without water. What a whiner.

Try relying on water delivery by the local fire truck every 3 weeks for 6 months and see if you can survive.

You are still missing the point. If this dry weather continues in Pattaya there may be no water in the taps indefinitely until such time as it rains properly and re-fills the three lakes that supply all the water in the area. In my condo building we can have water delivered by tanker and it will supply the taps and the pool in the normal way, but again the problem is that the tankers get their water from those same three lakes which are nearly empty. Empty lakes = no water. Also I doubt there are enough tankers in town to supply water to everyone, even if they dont have to drive many extra miles to collect it. Water usage in my building alone is in excess of 5000m3 per month, and there are hundreds of other buildings like mine here.

You may have chosen to live a rural existence in the back of beyond where shortages are par for the course, and good luck to you, but personally I'm not the slightest bit interested in living like that. I like services that work reliably - no power cuts, no DSL dropouts, water in taps, cable TV, no floods and no dirt track roads - and that's why I chose to live where I do. Our current near shortage of water is due to very unusual weather conditions and not to poor infrastructure, which I suspect your apparently much more common shortages are due to.

The "Back of Beyond" insult. What a snob.

[chiang mai]

You are still missing the point. If this dry weather continues in Pattaya there may be no water in the taps indefinitely until such time as it rains properly and re-fills the three lakes that supply all the water in the area. In my condo building we can have water delivered by tanker and it will supply the taps and the pool in the normal way, but again the problem is that the tankers get their water from those same three lakes which are nearly empty. Empty lakes = no water. Also I doubt there are enough tankers in town to supply water to everyone, even if they dont have to drive many extra miles to collect it. Water usage in my building alone is in excess of 5000m3 per month, and there are hundreds of other buildings like mine here.

You may have chosen to live a rural existence in the back of beyond where shortages are par for the course, and good luck to you, but personally I'm not the slightest bit interested in living like that. I like services that work reliably - no power cuts, no DSL dropouts, water in taps, cable TV, no floods and no dirt track roads - and that's why I chose to live where I do. Our current near shortage of water is due to very unusual weather conditions and not to poor infrastructure, which I suspect your apparently much more common shortages are due to.

The "Back of Beyond" insult. What a snob.

We live beyond the back of beyond, we like it here!

[KittenKong]

The "Back of Beyond" insult. What a snob.

We live beyond the back of beyond, we like it here!

Indeed. "Back of beyond" is not an insult, just a saying.

[billd766]

You are still missing the point. If this dry weather continues in Pattaya there may be no water in the taps indefinitely until such time as it rains properly and re-fills the three lakes that supply all the water in the area. In my condo building we can have water delivered by tanker and it will supply the taps and the pool in the normal way, but again the problem is that the tankers get their water from those same three lakes which are nearly empty. Empty lakes = no water. Also I doubt there are enough tankers in town to supply water to everyone, even if they dont have to drive many extra miles to collect it. Water usage in my building alone is in excess of 5000m3 per month, and there are hundreds of other buildings like mine here.

You may have chosen to live a rural existence in the back of beyond where shortages are par for the course, and good luck to you, but personally I'm not the slightest bit interested in living like that. I like services that work reliably - no power cuts, no DSL dropouts, water in taps, cable TV, no floods and no dirt track roads - and that's why I chose to live where I do. Our current near shortage of water is due to very unusual weather conditions and not to poor infrastructure, which I suspect your apparently much more common shortages are due to.

The "Back of Beyond" insult. What a snob.

We live beyond the back of beyond, we like it here!

I prefer Nakhon Nowhere but I do have a friend who lives in the posher part of Sakhon Somewhere.

[55Jay]

The "Back of Beyond" insult. What a snob.

We live beyond the back of beyond, we like it here!

I prefer Nakhon Nowhere but I do have a friend who lives in the posher part of Sakhon Somewhere.

Don't forget about the high brows out on Koh Ka-Ching.

[elgenon]

Most of the bottled drinking water supplied in Thailand comes from aquifers so bottled water is far less of an issue.

http://www.thailandguru.com/drinking-water-thailand.html (see half way down the page).

I hope so. Cali's aquifers are drying up because of water withdrawal and little replenishment.

I would guess a fair amount is tap water though.

[craigt3365]

Most of the bottled drinking water supplied in Thailand comes from aquifers so bottled water is far less of an issue.

http://www.thailandguru.com/drinking-water-thailand.html (see half way down the page).

According to this article, most tap or drinking water comes from the same source:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/385634-bottled-water-is-it-safe/#entry3768711

“The raw water that the drinking water companies use is taken from the same sources as the public tap water: Thailand’s rivers and canals. The only difference is in the treatment,” Suksom said.

“The Metropolitan Waterworks Authority (MWA) treats tap water in conventional ways, by filtering out turbidity [suspended particles] and disinfecting with chlorine to remove toxic bacteria.” Although the MWA sets and enforces standards for tap water in Bangkok, the standards do not approach WHO or other international water quality standards. Outside Bangkok, water treatment comes under the aegis of the Provincial Waterworks Authority, whose standards are even lower, according to Suksom.

[phuketrichard]

Heavy rains here in Phuket thru the next 10 days,

MY daughter lives in Santa Rosa not far from where all the fires are, wish i could send her some of this rain.

[sandyf]

I guess that is it for Pattaya then. In a couple of weeks when they run out of water they will no doubt shut the place down.

My condo building was without water for about 6 hours once due to a pump failure. That was 6 hours that I don't care to repeat.

Would you want to frequent bars or restaurants where there is no water to wash the glasses and plates or to flush the toilets, or stay in a hotel or condo or house where there is no water in the bathroom or the kitchen or the pool? I wouldn't.

Back in what they called the good old days, bars in Walking Street shut down the toilet cubicles when there was no water to flush.

[chiang mai]

Most of the bottled drinking water supplied in Thailand comes from aquifers so bottled water is far less of an issue.

http://www.thailandguru.com/drinking-water-thailand.html (see half way down the page).

According to this article, most tap or drinking water comes from the same source:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/385634-bottled-water-is-it-safe/#entry3768711

“The raw water that the drinking water companies use is taken from the same sources as the public tap water: Thailand’s rivers and canals. The only difference is in the treatment,” Suksom said.

“The Metropolitan Waterworks Authority (MWA) treats tap water in conventional ways, by filtering out turbidity [suspended particles] and disinfecting with chlorine to remove toxic bacteria.” Although the MWA sets and enforces standards for tap water in Bangkok, the standards do not approach WHO or other international water quality standards. Outside Bangkok, water treatment comes under the aegis of the Provincial Waterworks Authority, whose standards are even lower, according to Suksom.

I think it depends where you are and which brand you buy, as this excellent article suggests:

http://www.chiangraibulletin.com/2012/10/19/facts-about-bottled-water-in-thailand/

In the north of Thailand I'm used to spring water and seeing the bottled water plants/factories in the mountains between CM and Phayao.

[sandyf]

The low water level was a blessing in disguise this morning. My sister in law noticed a dead snake in one of the wells and emptied it with the sump pump. Fortunately there was only just over a metre of water, normally at this time there would be 4/5 metres.