Experts make dire predictions as lower than average rain forecast

[CGW]

39 minutes ago, Cake Monster said:

A month or so ago, the " Experts "also said in a statement that there would be no drought conditions or water shortages this dry season.

They forgot to add that only applied to the areas they cared about, they have little interest in the North East, where the vast majority of the drought is.

[hugocnx]

11 hours ago, Geoffggi said:

CANCELL SONGKRAN......!!!!!!

Hahaha, cursing in the church.

[alacrity]

1 hour ago, bkk6060 said:

Unfortunately, seems you made the choice to have a 3rd world water supply.

Good luck.

 

Reporting reflects what's an achievable narrative in any country. It's 'much hotter here this year' seems to be another bombshell claim for some reason. Coolest I've known it so far, over the past 12 months. Been here since 1992.

[ratcatcher]

15 minutes ago, alacrity said:

Reporting reflects what's an achievable narrative in any country. It's 'much hotter here this year' seems to be another bombshell claim for some reason. Coolest I've known it so far, over the past 12 months. Been here since 1992.

It may be coolest where you are, but it's not much help if you don't say roughly where you are located because, where I am is very hot right now, hotter than 2018 and I'm in Phichit area.

[emptypockets]

13 hours ago, Father Fintan Stack said:

They can't manage to make a cup of coffee properly...

 

Take a look around you, almost everything is done poorly, flawed, rushed or somehow ridiculous or defective.

 

The only time it is ever done properly is with foreign oversight.

Yeah.... Right..... I've never experienced a flood or a drought in Australia.  That is sarcasm for the mentally challenged. 

Bwana make all thing good.  Bwana god. 

Get over yourself. 

[emptypockets]

11 hours ago, seahorse said:

I'm sure we can all rely on them to manage resources well, can't we? 

Sometimes we have to rely on ourselves and make decisions.  Hard concept for those from many nanny states. 

[emptypockets]

9 hours ago, Darkside Gray said:

I'm starting to panic! They say we will not go thirst!!!

Only this weekend when the election is on. All good on Monday. 

[billd766]

I have been logging the Thai Met reports for years and I know that this will be a long, very hot and dry summer no matter what ANY government department says.

 

I have a fish pond of about 500,000 litres and the last time it was full was 2011/12. Last year, 2018 it never got past 65% and by the middle of February it was as dry as a bone.

 

We get government water from the klong which is fed by rainfall from the Mae Wong national park in Khampaeng Phet province. In 2011/12 it was about 40 metres wide and 5 metres deep. Last week it was about 2 metres wide and just over ankle deep.

 

The local Thais are not as stupid as this government thinks they are.

 

The local government water supply only flows at night when the farmers are abed. In the day there is no government water supply.

[emptypockets]

5 hours ago, CGW said:

They forgot to add that only applied to the areas they cared about, they have little interest in the North East, where the vast majority of the drought is.

There's been some major earth works creating water storage  going on where I am for the last 4 years.  Reticulated water in the village now!  I'm about 40k east of Surin.  The Mrs says she will vote for Prayut on Sunday.  Up to her. I'll just shut my mouth and enjoy a good life.. 

[emptypockets]

15 minutes ago, billd766 said:

I have been logging the Thai Met reports for years and I know that this will be a long, very hot and dry summer no matter what ANY government department says.

 

I have a fish pond of about 500,000 litres and the last time it was full was 2011/12. Last year, 2018 it never got past 65% and by the middle of February it was as dry as a bone.

 

We get government water from the klong which is fed by rainfall from the Mae Wong national park in Khampaeng Phet province. In 2011/12 it was about 40 metres wide and 5 metres deep. Last week it was about 2 metres wide and just over ankle deep.

 

The local Thais are not as stupid as this government thinks they are.

 

The local government water supply only flows at night when the farmers are abed. In the day there is no government water supply.

That's life in the tropics. 

Unless you live in the equatorial region like say Singapore then you have to deal with what nature throws at you. 

Our place in Oz has a bore for irrigation and the toilet.  We have 45,000 litres of rain water storage for drinking,  shower,  washing machine etc and it usually,  but not always,  lasts until the next rainly season. If we really struggle we have a water softening plant to treat the bore water. 

My motto. Be prepared!! 

Stop whining.

I used to have 250 mango trees.... Down to about 40 now.  That's what a drought does. 

Not having a go at you Bill,  but people from a totally different environment not to mention country need to be educated what life in the tropics can throw at you. 

Toto..... I don't think we are in Blackpool any more! 

[GinBoy2]

This is just poor management.

 

I'm a Californian. My home town gets on average about 6 inches of rain a year, in San Diego where I lived for many years about 12 inches a year.

California suffered an horrendous drought for 5 years a while back, since a lot of the water supply is based snowpack melt from the Sierra Nevada.

 

Somehow, they seemed to be able to keep the faucets flowing throughout all of that with decent water management programs.

 

Thailand goes through this cycle of flood and drought every other year.

 

There is a reason I have two frikkin huge water tanks in my Thai house, just for when, as they inevitably will do just turn off the water for a few days.

 

It's so predictable it's sad. But it'll give the news programs something to talk about, although you could probably just recycle footage of empty dams from a couple of years ago and no one would be any the wiser.

 

So on to Songkran and waste a few million gallons!! 

[billd766]

12 hours ago, emptypockets said:

That's life in the tropics. 

Unless you live in the equatorial region like say Singapore then you have to deal with what nature throws at you. 

Our place in Oz has a bore for irrigation and the toilet.  We have 45,000 litres of rain water storage for drinking,  shower,  washing machine etc and it usually,  but not always,  lasts until the next rainly season. If we really struggle we have a water softening plant to treat the bore water. 

My motto. Be prepared!! 

Stop whining.

I used to have 250 mango trees.... Down to about 40 now.  That's what a drought does. 

Not having a go at you Bill,  but people from a totally different environment not to mention country need to be educated what life in the tropics can throw at you. 

Toto..... I don't think we are in Blackpool any more! 

Thanks. I have 27 concrete ongs for storing the government water. 20 are cross connected and 7 are free standing. They each hold about 1,500 litres of useable water which we use for everything except drinking. That comes from 2 x 3,000 litre stainless steel tanks filled with rainwater and topped up twice a year.

 

When we moved here nearly 15 year ago we had 6 ongs and most people including my wife laughed at the stupid farang when I got a slab laid and increased to 20 ongs. Now they are laughing on the other side of their face.

 

I put one set of ongs on every week or 10 days and when I swap to the next set I refill the emptyish ones. When the government water finally stops I pump from the 7 free standing ongs to top up the main system, When the government water tanker comes around I get as much as they will let me have to top up the free standers the pump across again.

 

Where we live has granite around 2 metres below the ground surface. My wife did check for a borehole with some drillers but they told her that it would be a difficult and very expensive job with no guarantee of success.

[rickudon]

Depends where you are. The last 2 wet seasons were very wet and the ponds overflowed (last year they started to overflow in July!). Only had 2 years when the ponds dried up in the last decade (was always a few pools left, but could walk across the bottom in places).   Others only a few miles away got a lot less last year than us. But we have had the driest and hottest winter in 10 years and so now ponds back to normal water levels. We dug out the main pond in January, so we will not go dry.

 

Next month will be make or break. If the rains do not come, a lot of people will have no water.

[Broken Record]

11 hours ago, billd766 said:

Thanks. I have 27 concrete ongs for storing the government water. 20 are cross connected and 7 are free standing. They each hold about 1,500 litres of useable water which we use for everything except drinking. That comes from 2 x 3,000 litre stainless steel tanks filled with rainwater and topped up twice a year.

 

When we moved here nearly 15 year ago we had 6 ongs and most people including my wife laughed at the stupid farang when I got a slab laid and increased to 20 ongs. Now they are laughing on the other side of their face.

 

I put one set of ongs on every week or 10 days and when I swap to the next set I refill the emptyish ones. When the government water finally stops I pump from the 7 free standing ongs to top up the main system, When the government water tanker comes around I get as much as they will let me have to top up the free standers the pump across again.

 

Where we live has granite around 2 metres below the ground surface. My wife did check for a borehole with some drillers but they told her that it would be a difficult and very expensive job with no guarantee of success.

That's a great set up Bill.

Good job.

[robblok]

I am pretty sure there is enough water for "normal" consumption. Probably not enough for all the water the farmers use too. I hope they prioritize "normal" people before farmers. 

 

Would be totally unfair if large users like farmers use it all up and make the normal people pay for water.