Experts warn of water scarcity

Pratch Rujivanarom
The Nation

 

Low levels at dams could lead to problems if resources not carefully managed

 

BANGKOK: -- WHILE there is enough water available, resources have to be managed very carefully, as water experts have warned that mismanagement could result in serious problems. 

Sucharit Koontanakulvong, head of water resources engineering at Chulalongkorn University, pointed out that even though the water level in our reservoirs looks positive, the authorities should be careful as the current level of water in dams was still quite low. 

 

Full story: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Experts-warn-of-water-scarcity-30295641.html

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2016-09-19

Pranburi Dam is very very low now but i'm sure one house in Hua Hin will always have water.

I drove up there yesterday to have a look expecting it to have been somewhat replenished but it was  lower than when i looked a  few  months back despite a  fair  amount of rain.

I noticed they do not  open the floodgates now to the surrounding areas for farming hardly ever.

Nationally the reservoirs are at 57% of capacity (overall average) and the levels are fast approaching those of 2014 which was a very good year for rain. The details are here:

 

http://www.thaiwater.net/DATA/REPORT/php/rid_dam_1.php?lang=en

40 minutes ago, chiang mai said:

Nationally the reservoirs are at 57% of capacity (overall average) and the levels are fast approaching those of 2014 which was a very good year for rain. The details are here:

 

http://www.thaiwater.net/DATA/REPORT/php/rid_dam_1.php?lang=en

When you read the table, try moving 2 columns to the right to the Usable level. At 23% it doesn't look that rosy.

Then if you click on the blue dam name, (Bhumipol is a prime example) you can see how truly miserable the situation  has been since PTP's darling decided to dump the dam levels in 2012.

Not enough water, huh????? It's rainy season now, you so called silly fool experts. Enough to flood an entire Northern nation and major parts of Bangkok

24 minutes ago, MaxLee said:

Not enough water, huh????? It's rainy season now, you so called silly fool experts. Enough to flood an entire Northern nation and major parts of Bangkok

Are you saying that the dam water level figures are fake?

2 minutes ago, gabruce said:

Are you saying that the dam water level figures are fake?

Judging by the emoticons, he thinks it's hilarious. Even though we may have another 6 weeks of rainy season left, management of the stored water needs to be done with great care. I'm not sure which northern nation is entirely flooded, but certain areas of the north and northeast of Thailand have been hit by localized floods. Happens every year. Thousands of rai in Phichit province are under water due to controlled water storage under the "cheeky monkey " system.

 

You'd think that after so many years of flooding the authorities would have figured

out by now who to channel this precious water in to some local catchment or a reservoir,

but no,,, the waters and the flooding comes and goes and hardly any of it are being

properly collected, that the dry season come, and everybody cry of water shortages

and drought and start digging wells.... this is indeed, Thailand....

13 minutes ago, ratcatcher said:

Judging by the emoticons, he thinks it's hilarious. Even though we may have another 6 weeks of rainy season left, management of the stored water needs to be done with great care. I'm not sure which northern nation is entirely flooded, but certain areas of the north and northeast of Thailand have been hit by localized floods. Happens every year. Thousands of rai in Phichit province are under water due to controlled water storage under the "cheeky monkey " system.

Don't worry, those shallow ponds will evaporate rapidly after the rains stop.

1 hour ago, halloween said:

When you read the table, try moving 2 columns to the right to the Usable level. At 23% it doesn't look that rosy.

Then if you click on the blue dam name, (Bhumipol is a prime example) you can see how truly miserable the situation  has been since PTP's darling decided to dump the dam levels in 2012.

 

I think water storage is something of an art, too little and we have a drought, too much and we have floods that can't be control. It's for those reasons I think that the scale down the bottom of the page is colour coded as it is, less than 30 and more than 80% are both very dangerous. I therefore prefer to compare current year against the last known good year which is 2014, if you do that we look OK or better.

2 hours ago, halloween said:

When you read the table, try moving 2 columns to the right to the Usable level. At 23% it doesn't look that rosy.

Then if you click on the blue dam name, (Bhumipol is a prime example) you can see how truly miserable the situation  has been since PTP's darling decided to dump the dam levels in 2012.

After your darling AV in 2011 decided not to let water out and ended up flooding Bangkok. The problem is a total lack of a water management plan controlled by one institution. At present there are more than 20 departments involved in water management and thats the problem. The present junta decided to use the B 350 bn that was ear marked for this plan to drill boreholes, wise arent they ?

The useable versus capacity numbers are distorted by the two larger dams, compare those numbers at Mae Ngud and Bhumibol as an example.

whens that lovely new billion baht train coming, thatll fix it

Thailand should be building hundreds of new smaller local reservoirs in opportunistic areas, good jobs, drought prevention, flood control, whats to think about.

"water experts have warned that mismanagement could result in serious problems. "

 

Mismanagement is not the right word as yet again there seems to be a great lack of any management so next year the drought will be worse than this year's was.

 

But expect harsher laws to deal with any unrest that will occur.

30 minutes ago, Grubster said:

Thailand should be building hundreds of new smaller local reservoirs in opportunistic areas, good jobs, drought prevention, flood control, whats to think about.

and plenty of  corruption opportunities  just like the "white elephant" they built  down the road from me.....2  million baht to dig out a hole ( about 6 rai) to find when completed it wasnt deep enough and they couldnt go deeper as it was ROCK, guess they over looked the "site survey" first but hey "they all got paid" even laid the water pipes in............all for NOTHING

They dont even maintain the concrete  gulleys they built about 30 years ago here, got trees and all sorts growing in them, theyll clear it with a makro later which then breaks the concrete in many places adding to the loss of water.

management? HUH, couldnt even  tie their own shoelaces

8 hours ago, webfact said:

Sucharit Koontanakulvong, head of water resources engineering at Chulalongkorn University, pointed out that even though the water level in our reservoirs looks positive, the authorities should be careful as the current level of water in dams was still quite low. 

Dear Mr. Sucharit you really have me scratching my head with this statement. Does it mean the glass is half full or half empty. Water should be treated with respect even during the most bountiful of times. It along with blood is what sustains us. 

6 hours ago, MaxLee said:

Not enough water, huh????? It's rainy season now, you so called silly fool experts. Enough to flood an entire Northern nation and major parts of Bangkok

I'd rather be called a factual silly fool expert than a self proclaimed specialist without facts.

4 hours ago, chiang mai said:

The useable versus capacity numbers are distorted by the two larger dams, compare those numbers at Mae Ngud and Bhumibol as an example.

I don't see any distortion, the usable figures are what is actually available without the distortion of unusable capacity. And I don't see 2014 as being that good a year either, levels in the bigger dams never approaching the old target levels or even Yingluk's lower control targets.

Buy bigger taps, easy

We are 15Km south of Phrachaup little rain this wet season , now water every second day if we are lucky

Some areas near us no water for 4 months

even in PKK water pressure is very low.

 

Next year big problems for sure

5 hours ago, SOUTHERNSTAR said:

After your darling AV in 2011 decided not to let water out and ended up flooding Bangkok. The problem is a total lack of a water management plan controlled by one institution. At present there are more than 20 departments involved in water management and thats the problem. The present junta decided to use the B 350 bn that was ear marked for this plan to drill boreholes, wise arent they ?

While I am against the extended use of groundwater, I can see that a critical problem can require a short term solution.

When your up to your butt in alligators, it's hard to remember that you're here to drain the swamp. 

I lived in Pranburi for over a decade. I had a 30,000 L. cement cistern built under by car park. That really helped.

That area does have the best weather in the entire country though.

Well...on with rainmaking, then...

3 hours ago, soalbundy said:

Buy bigger taps, easy

That "is" so Thai

3 hours ago, NickJ said:

I lived in Pranburi for over a decade. I had a 30,000 L. cement cistern built under by car park. That really helped.

That area does have the best weather in the entire country though.

i built a 1 rai 8 metre deep lake

I know about that Lake. All the workers sneek in there and fish.....:-o 

On 19/09/2016 at 2:29 PM, halloween said:

I don't see any distortion, the usable figures are what is actually available without the distortion of unusable capacity. And I don't see 2014 as being that good a year either, levels in the bigger dams never approaching the old target levels or even Yingluk's lower control targets.

 

The average figures at the bottom of the spreadsheet are clearly distorted by the larger reservoirs, for example:

 

Bhumibol, a large reservoir, has a max. capacity of 13.462 MCM (100%), currently it contains 5,374 MCM (40%), of which only 1,574 MCM (12%) is usable.

Mae Ngud, a small reservoir, has a max. capacity of 265 MCM (100%) currently it contains 122 MCM (46%), of which only 110 MCM (42%) is usable.

 

The difference between 28% unusable in the larger dam and 4% unusable in the smaller dam suggests Bhumibol is more flat whereas Ngud is V shaped, adding those numbers to get an average is pointless and very misleading.

1 hour ago, chiang mai said:

 

The average figures at the bottom of the spreadsheet are clearly distorted by the larger reservoirs, for example:

 

Bhumibol, a large reservoir, has a max. capacity of 13.462 MCM (100%), currently it contains 5,374 MCM (40%), of which only 1,574 MCM (12%) is usable.

Mae Ngud, a small reservoir, has a max. capacity of 265 MCM (100%) currently it contains 122 MCM (46%), of which only 110 MCM (42%) is usable.

 

The difference between 28% unusable in the larger dam and 4% unusable in the smaller dam suggests Bhumibol is more flat whereas Ngud is V shaped, adding those numbers to get an average is pointless and very misleading.

It takes longer to refill a big dam than a smaller dam, and you see that as a distortion? When the big dam empties slower, will that also be a distortion?

The usable figure gives a more accurate value for the water available.

1 minute ago, halloween said:

It takes longer to refill a big dam than a smaller dam, and you see that as a distortion? When the big dam empties slower, will that also be a distortion?

The usable figure gives a more accurate value for the water available.

 

What I see as a very clear distortion is trying to take the current capacity and usable volume numbers of a series of unequally sized dams and trying to arrive at an overall average of percentage of useable water, especially when the largest dams is a factor of 50 times larger than the smaller dams. As I said earlier, the average numbers are scewed inappropriately, particularly the overall average.