Water drained out of Chao Phraya dam in anticipation of more rains

 

The Royal Irrigation Department is draining water out of the Chao Phraya dam in anticipation of more rains in the lower northern region and the Central Plains as a result of monsoon trough.

 

Agriculture Minister Chatchai Sarikalya said Friday that he had granted permission for the Royal Irrigation Department to drain out the water, but warned the department to assure people living downstream of Chao Phraya dam that they would be safe from flooding.

 

The minister said he was pretty sure that Bangkok and its peripherals would not be flooded this despite the increasing rains, noting that the existing dams in the North are still capable of storing more rains.

 

Besides, he added that several klongs in the central region have been drained to create more room to receive runoffs released from the Chao Phraya dam.

 

Full story: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/water-drained-chao-phraya-dam-anticipation-rains/

 

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2016-09-24

 

"....he was pretty sure that Bangkok and its peripherals would not be flooded......."

 

Well, that's encouraging!

Thats what they said last time.

11 hours ago, KBsinter said:

Thats what they said last time.

There's information on this here: http://www.maekuangudomthara.com/home

This is for a smaller dam just outside of Doi Saket in Chiang Mai Province, so it's just an example. Much of Chiang Mai's tap water and irrigation comes from this dam. See the graph at the bottom of the page. If you click on the graph, it will open in another tab. You don't have to read Thai to make sense of it.

 

Compare this year (the red line) to five years ago (2554, the blue line high in the graph). You can see that this year, the water level started much lower due to last year's drought. In 2011, the water began at a much higher level, and then we had a very rainy wet season. The dam overflowed. This year, near the end of September. the water level is only 30.x%. The same is true for the big dams nationwide.

 

The irrigation department knows what it's talking about this time.