Chiang Mai assures its Ku Muang canal has clean and enough water to splash, but sparingly



CHIANG MAI: -- Chiang Mai authorities assured celebrants to the upcoming Songkran festival that its popular "Ku Muang" or city canal whichsurrounds the old capital of Chang Mai will still have water for them to splash, but sparingly.

Meanwhile the Chiang Mai city officials are hastily making the water at the city canal clean and safe for water splashing during the water festival, starting next week.

“Splashing water along the historical ‘Ku Muang’ or city canal has long been one of the charms of Songkran festival in Chiang Mai. This year however, local residents as well as tourists must exercise restraint and save water as much as they can as water supplies in the canal are only half of what they normally are. Many have voiced concerns over the quality of the water that remains,” said Mr Rangsit Chanta-Siripittikun, director of the Mae Taeng Irrigation Project.

He said although the historical city canal has been consistently refilled with new supplies of water, but this year’s bad drought has not permitted officials to completely drain out the canal as is traditionally done prior to every Songkran.

Severely reduced water supplies has meant that no amount of water can be wasted and the canal can only be refilled with 50,000 cubic meters. Normally, the city canal would be filled by no less than 100,000 cubic meters of water in preparation for Songkran festival.

He said supplies for the city canal is now taken from the Mae Taeng river which contains a containment facility 50 kilometres north of Chiang Mai.

The irrigation chief said today’s readings show a flow rate of the river is 1.4 cubic meters per second which is even worse that the worst drought on record in Thailand during 1998 and 1999.

In those years the flow rate was at 2.7 cubic meters per second. For the same period in 2015, the readings were 5 cubic meters per second.

This means this year is lowest.

This is the main factor in limiting water supplies to Chaing Mai’s historical ‘Ku Muang’ this year, he said.

As a result, Chiang Mai municipal authorities are now forced to treat or recondition water supplies that are already in the canal so that it is safe for splashing water during Songkran.

In any event, residents have been informed to splash water sparingly as unrestricted splashing could result in a complete exhaustion of water supplies in the canal itself as there is only a small supply left for refills.

Mayor of Chiang Mai Municipality Mr Tassanai Burananupakon said now city workers were told to operate the fountains for longer periods up to 14 hours per day and also were sucking out algae which will force more oxygen into the water.

Chlorine is also added between 3 to 5 times depending on the condition of the water.

He assured that in doing this “we can safely guarantee that the water will be safe for Songkran.“

Chiang Mai municipal authorities have now launched a water conservation campaign all along the city canal and have forbidden the sale and distribution of oversized containers to store water for the purpose of splashing.

They are advising restrained conscientious splashing in keeping with tradition, using just enough to alleviate the intense heat.

They said residents and tourists alike are reminded that many territories in the country are now faced with a shortage of water for daily consumption so no waste can be contemplated.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/content/158238


-- Thai PBS 2016-04-05

Its OK Bill is on the job.

Enough water to splash, but sparingly !

Good news. And water levels look just fine actually.

Two things I learnt a long time a go' Never shake an Indian's left hand and never believe what a Thai tells you.