Thailand scrambles to drill wells amid drought and water shortages

[webfact]

Thailand scrambles to drill wells amid drought and water shortages
BY ALISA TANG

BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Thai authorities are rushing to drill thousands of wells across the country to ensure enough water for drinking and washing, as farmers grapple with a drought and a months-long water shortage.

Authorities examined the water supply and demand nationwide - taking into account needs for agriculture, industrial use and human consumption - and decided to drill 4,300 more wells, said Suphot Tovichakchaikul, secretary of the National Water Board, comprised of water officials and chaired by the prime minister.

"The most effective way to make sure that people have water to use this dry season is to drill underground wells," Suphot, who is also chief of the Department of Water Resources, said in an interview in his office on Tuesday.

Full story: http://in.reuters.com/article/thailand-drought-idINKCN0UX27Y


-- Reuters 2016-01-20

[thesetat2013]

Hindsight is 20/20 and it seems these guys are a day late and a dollar short. They have known drought was imminent. They raced to build holding tanks at the end of the rainy season then assured everyone that their would be plenty of water, yet, here they are again racing to dig more wells and promising everything will be OK. As long as the farmers keep planting off season rice things will not get better. And it is very hard to believe they can make a statement claiming their will be enough for consumption.

[IsaanUSA]

I'm not expert, but I'm pretty sure you can't just drill your way out of a drought.

[leeneeds]

1. Control of the water quality will be paramount , testing to ensure non saline and clear looking water is not some how allowed to contaminate the good fresh, stuff, checks and documented controls, of the (4300 ) wells to be drilled/dug

2. Some saline water has very little contaminates and desalination plants can be used to turn this water into fresh water, and pumped, pushed or carried to stock pile locations using very little of the 3.5 billion baht allocation,

3. Scramble to get this done and it will be a stuff up.

[ezzra]

Hindsight is 20/20 and it seems these guys are a day late and a dollar short. They have known drought was imminent. They raced to build holding tanks at the end of the rainy season then assured everyone that their would be plenty of water, yet, here they are again racing to dig more wells and promising everything will be OK. As long as the farmers keep planting off season rice things will not get better. And it is very hard to believe they can make a statement claiming their will be enough for consumption.

What are you talking about? this is Thailand sir, and in Thailand, no one plans ahead, screw it, will get to it

when there is no other means left to solve the problems and it's too late to foresee and prevent problems

from happening, Thailand motto, we strive on apathy and laziness, and mediocrely, and we don't do today

what we can do next month.....

[worgeordie]

Too little, too late,its not like this problem just happened yesterday,

its been building for the last 3 years,with less and less rainfall,if the

next rainy season does not deliver,Thailand's going to have BIG problems.

regards Worgeordie

[avocadowangnamkeouw]

anyone see government workers drilling for water?

[Naam]

I'm not expert, but I'm pretty sure you can't just drill your way out of a drought.

surprisingly the water level in my deep well is higher than during other dry seasons when we had ample rain during the rainy season. but don't ask me why.

[leeneeds]

I'm not expert, but I'm pretty sure you can't just drill your way out of a drought.

surprisingly the water level in my deep well is higher than during other dry seasons when we had ample rain during the rainy season. but don't ask me why.

it can depend on what time of the day you check your level of the well , ground conditions and heat/ evaporation can have the effect on water levels,

[williamgeorgeallen]

I'm not expert, but I'm pretty sure you can't just drill your way out of a drought.

agreed. i am also no expert but i am pretty sure you cant just limitlessly pull up water from wells. water table will be driven deeper and salt water can be pulled in replacing it in lower areas. isnt bangkok supposed to be sinking as water beneath it gets extracted?

[toybits]

Thailand is a tropical country and receives lots of rainfall. Rainwater should be harvested and stored in cisterns during the rainy months and used during the dry season for drinking and cooking. Washing and other domestic uses of water can use a less clean source of water such as surface water from ponds, creeks, rivers or lakes. Shallow wells can also be used for washing and flushing toilets.

Digging wells as suggested in the OP will cause serious problems in the future. Those who suggested it don't care because it will be the future administrators problems to deal with. Very short-sighted, this plan is....

[springheeled jack]

what happened to all the promises they made last year regarding ground water wells being built .

[OMGImInPattaya]

Agree with others, I don't get how a country that suffers from massive annual flooding also suffers seemingly annual droughts. Why aren't more efforts made to capture and store more of the surface water runoff during the rainy season.

[EyesWideOpen]

Agree with others, I don't get how a country that suffers from massive annual flooding also suffers seemingly annual droughts. Why aren't more efforts made to capture and store more of the surface water runoff during the rainy season.

Agreed, an amazing aspect of Thailand. Seems to lurch from drought

to flood to drought ad infinitum . Seems I recall that dams are the

answer. But a huge expense and long term planning that extends

beyond a single government. But to be fair, when the weather turns

extreme it can be hard to regulate. Even America to some degree

suffers from droughts and floods.....

[wabothai]

Too little, too late,its not like this problem just happened yesterday,

its been building for the last 3 years,with less and less rainfall,if the

next rainy season does not deliver,Thailand's going to have BIG problems.

regards Worgeordie

yes, and many many heads will roll. They deserve it.

[wabothai]

Agree with others, I don't get how a country that suffers from massive annual flooding also suffers seemingly annual droughts. Why aren't more efforts made to capture and store more of the surface water runoff during the rainy season.

You know the answer as we all do.

[elgordo38]

I'm not expert, but I'm pretty sure you can't just drill your way out of a drought.

Its a stop gap measure. When the earth collapses underneath you you know your in trouble.

[elgordo38]

Agree with others, I don't get how a country that suffers from massive annual flooding also suffers seemingly annual droughts. Why aren't more efforts made to capture and store more of the surface water runoff during the rainy season.

It costs money honey

[Oziex1]

Agree with others, I don't get how a country that suffers from massive annual flooding also suffers seemingly annual droughts. Why aren't more efforts made to capture and store more of the surface water runoff during the rainy season.

You mean like building more dams.

[Artisi]

I'm not expert, but I'm pretty sure you can't just drill your way out of a drought.

surprisingly the water level in my deep well is higher than during other dry seasons when we had ample rain during the rainy season. but don't ask me why.

it can depend on what time of the day you check your level of the well , ground conditions and heat/ evaporation can have the effect on water levels,

How can daily weather conditions affect groundwater levels, particularly as the OP was talking about his deep well?

[Artisi]

I can't see what the problem is, we all know that Thai's are the world's experts in everything- drilling a few wells should cause any problems whatsoever.

What problems could there be? It will only take a day or two for a full hydrology study in each area, to drill sufficient deep wells equipped with correctly sized screens and to develop the well installation, install sufficient and correctly sized pump units selected to not over pump the aquifer, run sufficient power to each location, supply correctly selected control panels and well monitoring equipment and then reticulate the pumped water in the most economical means- you can easily see it's really a no-brainer for the expertise available from your local cowboy well driller. And not forgetting we will be able to charge as much as we like for our skills....

[leeneeds]

The ground temperature below 5 m is pretty average around the world generally, where the well is sunk ? what ground it is sunk in how preamble is the surrounding rock, clay, siltstone, calcrete, sand etc,

as i said before what time of day was his checks done and the volume in height will not be that great a difference , evaporation does play apart inside the well as does the heat , with condensation , and vs versa when its cool, If you ever get to look at an open cut mine or a tunnel or cave , you may well see the water changes due to temperature changes that weep when it is cooler and dry off when it is warmer,

[Naam]

I'm not expert, but I'm pretty sure you can't just drill your way out of a drought.

surprisingly the water level in my deep well is higher than during other dry seasons when we had ample rain during the rainy season. but don't ask me why.

it can depend on what time of the day you check your level of the well , ground conditions and heat/ evaporation can have the effect on water levels,

heat and evaporation at 35m depth?

[nong38]

Drought? What drought?

[leeneeds]

I'm not expert, but I'm pretty sure you can't just drill your way out of a drought.

surprisingly the water level in my deep well is higher than during other dry seasons when we had ample rain during the rainy season. but don't ask me why.

it can depend on what time of the day you check your level of the well , ground conditions and heat/ evaporation can have the effect on water levels,

heat and evaporation at 35m depth?

[leeneeds]

Potential evapotranspiration = maximum quantity of water capable of being evaporated in a given climate from a continuos expanse of vegetation covering the whole ground and well supplied with water it includes evaporation from soil and transpiration from vegetation from a specific region in a specific time, expressed as depth of water.

[ratcatcher]

"The Thai government has recently announced an innovative plan to buy two new kinds of water storage & delivery systems due to on-going drought conditions.."

The first, the T90 model, is a mobile all-terrain water tank that can be used to pump and deliver fresh water to remote villages suffering from severe drought conditions.

Clearly visible is the long water hose connection. The Russians have been named as a possible supplier.

The second system is a mobile desalination plant & water storage facility known as SSWSC (sub-surface water storage cylinder) that can be moved by sea to any areas of the country close to the coast. These units are stored under water for protection against the heat of the sun and security purposes.

[MaiChai]

I'm in Khon kaen provence and we had rain today. Actually have had rain 3 times in the last 10 days. It's all rather odd as we should be moving into dry season and it should be bone dry and extremely hot. Weather looks screwed to me.

[metisdead]

A post containing a link to Bangkok Post has been removed as well as a reply:

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[khunyod]

Drought? 17 million cubic metres of water per day released by dams in central Thailand to fight saltwater intrusion. See recent news item on unlinkable site regarding MWA.

Would you, with your great knowledge and expertise, advise that water be "saved" and the salt water intrusion ignored ?

What are your qualifications in water supply engineering ?

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that increasing saltwater intrusion (global warming, rising sea level, depleted aquifers) requires increasing water flow from dams to fight it. In a situation of normal water supply, this actually creates a drought situation.

Priorities are clear: coddle the Bangkok urbanites and shift the problem onto the farmers (who will go under with debt) - a political weapon at work, or simply ignorance and neglect.

Water security is a multifaceted problem that needs to be attacked on many fronts. This is not rocket science, but it does take a basic understanding of where water comes from, how it is stored and consumed. We could start with where rain comes from. Try Google and YouTube if you feel a deficit of knowledge there.

Here are basic approaches/areas that need to be tackled and improved, and are entirely within the ability of a functioning government to actually solve (though the fifth item is a bit tricky).

- Reduce demand through changes in consumer behavior, especially urban water consumption. California is a model to learn from. See article titled "Thailand drought time to conserve water is now" on unlinkable site.

- Reduce water waste (this is consumer behavior, but also infrastructure, leaking faucets, pipes, canals, etc.)

- Price water at a steep increase (this affects consumer and industry behavior), but also based on use type (water for food should actually have a higher priority than water for golf courses and car washes)

- Invest in water producing technology (yes, there are a few, such as desalination, and atmospheric water generation, rainwater harvesting). With the great powers of the nation on command, one would expect a bit more.

- Create a viable replacement for the aquifer/saltwater intrusion problem in Bangkok and other vulnerable areas (that will only get worse and sooner or later suffer complete collapse). Development (industrial, housing, etc.) in areas that these vulnerable aquifers are meant to serve should stop immediately without self-sustaining water generation required for each project (yes, that is possible, see technologies noted above, especially awg).

Edited April 2, 2016 by khunyod