Chiang Mai: Drought Almost Over, but Farmers Urged to Hold off on Planting Rice

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Drought Almost Over, but Farmers Urged to Hold off on Planting Rice
by CityNews



CityNews – “The water crisis has passed, Jansark Limpiti, Director of Chiang Mai Irrigation Office told CityNews, “But while the crisis has passed, we are still rationing and managing water resources with great attention to details.”

According to Jansark, the absolute crisis this year occurred in mid-May, when water levels were at their most alarmingly low. “As I told you in our interview earlier this year, we had planned for this drought since November 2015.

We knew it was going to be a rough year and we knew how much water we had, so we came up with a 26 week plan, to manage our water resources. We decided that we could not release more than 1.7 million cubic metres (CBM) of water per week for Chiang Mai, and on the most part our plan and management served us well.

There were two crisis weeks, once was on week 13 when we had issues with Lamphun Industrial Estate not having water as it was downstream from a district which has diverted the water from the Ping River for a fish farm.

That took a lot of work to sort out. The second problem came mid-may in week 20 when our 1.7 million CBM only went as far downstream as Pa Sang, again, it was diverted by farmers along the way.

At that point, it wasn’t just farmers who had no access to water, there was no drinking water for those south of Pasang. We had to release 4.3 million CBM that week. It was a big risk as our water supply was so low, but we knew the rains were around the corner.”

Full story: http://www.chiangmaicitylife.com/news/drought-almost-farmers-urged-hold-off-planting-rice/


-- Chiang City News 2016-06-07

[Ulic]

While that picture inspires no confidence that the drought crises is over the government

statement that farmers should put off planting should spark a rush to start planting.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

While that picture inspires no confidence that the drought crises is over the government

statement that farmers should put off planting should spark a rush to start planting.

Citylife pictures have no relation whatsoever with the article (any article). Some intern grabs something that's roughly on the same topic and slaps it on, apparently it's unthinkable to just have an article unless there is a picture to go with it.

Either way, with frequent rain the water levels in the reservoirs matters less in the short term: enough water falls from the sky. What will matter is how much reservoirs will have filled up by the end of the rainy season, as that's all the waster that will be available for the next dry season in November -> May 2017.

[elgordo38]

What a self serving statement. We were in crisis around May 15th and now 3 weeks later everything is in great shape. According to Jansark, the absolute crisis this year occurred in mid-May, when water levels were at their most alarmingly low. “As I told you in our interview earlier this year, we had planned for this drought since November 2015. unquote. They had planned for this crisis . Sorry I need a time out to finish laughing.

[Srikcir]

If you're rationing, the crisis isn't over.

[billd766]

While that picture inspires no confidence that the drought crises is over the government

statement that farmers should put off planting should spark a rush to start planting.

Citylife pictures have no relation whatsoever with the article (any article). Some intern grabs something that's roughly on the same topic and slaps it on, apparently it's unthinkable to just have an article unless there is a picture to go with it.

Either way, with frequent rain the water levels in the reservoirs matters less in the short term: enough water falls from the sky. What will matter is how much reservoirs will have filled up by the end of the rainy season, as that's all the waster that will be available for the next dry season in November -> May 2017.

In reality the drought is not yet over. They need to look at the water capacity in the dams around October to say that with confidence.

The four main reservoirs in Thailand will take 2 to 3 years to fill properly.

Where do you think the water comes from to feed the rivers that the farmers get their water from other than from the reservoirs?

We have had thunderstorms and heavy rain in the part of rural Khampaeng Phet where I live but there is still no water in my rain fed fishpond.

The good news is that the government rain fed water supply is running again albeit at a much reduced pressure after only 5 1/2 months with no water.

Edited June 7, 2016 by billd766

[jak2002003]

Been up to my local dam... still very low... The drought crisis is only 'over' because we are having some rain to green things up and supply a small amount of water. If the rain stops.. or at the end of this rainy season... it will be a drought again.. as its going to take a hell of a lot of water to refill the dams.

[chiang mai]

The groundwater needs to get back to normal levels before any meaningful amount of run off will divert to the reservoirs rather than be absorbed into the ground and that hasn't even nearly begun to happen. I'm on the flat plains in Mae Rim, at the base of the mountains and the water table here, at the end of a good wet season, is at 4 metres. At the end of the most recent dry season (last month) the water table here was at 11 metres.

Today the water table is at 8.0 metres!

[Pim Kemasingki]

On 7/6/2559 at 2:36 PM, WinnieTheKhwai said:

Citylife pictures have no relation whatsoever with the article (any article). Some intern grabs something that's roughly on the same topic and slaps it on, apparently it's unthinkable to just have an article unless there is a picture to go with it.

Either way, with frequent rain the water levels in the reservoirs matters less in the short term: enough water falls from the sky. What will matter is how much reservoirs will have filled up by the end of the rainy season, as that's all the waster that will be available for the next dry season in November -> May 2017.

 

Just came across this gem from WinnieTheKwai and thought I need to clarify things a tad. You said that my picture had no relevance whatsoever to the article, in fact you went so far as to say none of our pictures do, and opined that an intern had plucked a picture from somewhere to put next to a text - a rather detailed and fantastical assumption, if I may say.  Anyway, that picture is taken from the reservoir outside the office of the head of irrigation five minutes after the end of my interview with him. Not sure how I can get more relevant! We occasionally use stock photos, as we simply don't have the capacity to always be at the scene. But with three full time photographers and many other staff, most of our images are ours and we do our best to curate and make sure that they are always relevant. Please feel free to see more stories at our site, www.chiangmaicitylife.com. Thanks! 

[terminatorchiangmai]

if i see a headline with drought almost over and a picture of an empty reservoir i think there is something wrong with the headline.

Yesterday i visited 3 reservoirs and they where all empty.

If the next 2 months its not poring down every day i foresee an ever bigger drought next year.

[sirmud63]

 yep , your dead right . after seeing what 15 years of drought has been like in ozz . thailand has no idear ,after just going into there 3rd year of drought . i would be very surprised if the rains this year even fill up the underground water table ,let alone the reservoirs. the worst thing about it is that most farmers think the water they pump from underground is an in finite resource. ontop of that so many of the big farmers are putting down more and more bores all the time . give it another  3 years and they will be in dire straights .

 

Edited September 2, 2016 by sirmud63

[Srikcir]

50 minutes ago, sirmud63 said:

ontop of that so many of the big farmers are putting down more and more bores all the time

You mean like in Thailand ( 2016-01-20)?

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

 

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/887985-thailand-scrambles-to-drill-wells-amid-drought-and-water-shortages/?page=1