Phuket Prepares For Water Shortages

[george]

Phuket prepares for water shortages

PHUKET CITY: -- Despite a spattering of some much welcome rain on the island yesterday, provincial authorities are preparing for water shortages as Phuket is expected to endure more hot weather before the annual rains arrive in May.

At a March 15 meeting at Phuket Provincial Hall chaired by Phuket Vice-Governor Worapoj Ratthasima, Aroon Kerdsom, Chief of the Phuket Office of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (ODPM), said, “Phuket has a 50-million-baht reserve to use in case of an emergency, from which the Governor has already approved each district 500,000 baht to help people who do not have water.

“And if that is not enough, the Governor can approve more money within three days. Now we [the ODPM] have about 180 volunteers, 23 feed pumps and 50 water trucks on stand by to help villagers without water.”

K. Aroon added that his office has asked local authorities to add chlorine to their water reserves as their levels fall. “We want water to be safe for people to use in the dry season too,” he said.

Phuket Provincial Irrigation Office (PPIO) Chief Isara Anukul explained to V/Gov Worapoj that Bang Wad reservoir is half full, which should last long enough until the expected rains arrive at the end of April.

However, he added that the Southern Meteorological Center West Coast forecasts hot weather in Phuket for the rest of March with the possibility of only some patches of rain, and that the center forecasts the same for April, but with a higher chance of rain.

“Bang Wad Dam has a capacity of about 7.3 million cubic liters of water. Now there is 3.5 million cubic liters, which is about 48%.

“Phuket Provincial Water Supply and Phuket City Municipality Water Supply use about 1.1 million cubic liters a month, so we should not have problems for three months,” he said.

However, if the rains do not arrive in time he said he would call in the Royal Rainmaking Project to help encourage the clouds to let loose on Phuket.

Phuket’s water problems are attracting the attention of some Bangkok officials. On March 16, Samart Chokkanapitak, the Director General of the Royal Irrigation Department, inspected the Bang Wad reservoir and had Phuket’s recurring water shortage problems explained to him.

The Thai Third Naval Command is offering to supply water to people in drought-stricken coastal and island areas in Phuket, Phang Nga, Krabi, Trang, Satun and Ranong provinces. A Royal Thai Navy boat will deliver the water to areas that need it.

People can request the free water from the Third Naval Command by calling 076-341598.

--Phuket Gazette 2007-03-21

[markg]

Erm - shouldnt the desalination plant that recently opened be able to sort this out?

[pumper]

Do any communities on Phuket have 'well' or is the entire island using surface water?

Is all of Phuket supplied by the 1 lake / reservoir?

The government of the Marshall Islands dispatched a ship to supply drinking water to outlying islands Wednesday after declaring a state of emergency amid a prolonged drought.

& Los Angeles has had less than 3" .. 7cm .. of rain this season, 9 months

Edited March 23, 2007 by pumper

[markg]

Do any communities on Phuket have 'well' or is the entire island using surface water?

Is all of Phuket supplied by the 1 lake / reservoir?

Here's what i know.

There is a great big resevoir which supplies a lot of the water.

The water board also have contracts to pump water out of flooded tin mines - this is one of the reasons why the water in Phuket isnt drinkable - some of the water from here becomes contaminated with heavy metals used in the old tin mining days.

Large hotels ( i cant remember how large) have to recyle their waste water for re-use, and i think they have to store water too.

A lot of communities will have well water - but Phuket is quite hilly, so i guess the water table drops to below well level during the dry season.

There is a massive sea water desalination plant that just came on line. There shouldnt really be a water shortage now.

I'm guessing - and this is just my view, that this news item refers to villagers who's wells have run dry because the waer table has gone down. They are the ones who arent on the public water network and who would need the supply to come from the water trucks.

Really in this day and age Phuket shouldnt be running out of water.

This is a yearly news item. It does make you think about conserving water though.

[jdinasia]

There are well and spring water users too. From Kamala to Surin as you make the very last turn into Surin is a place (not sure if it is a well or a sppring) where they fill up tankers ... there is also one between Kamala and Patong near the Marley Bar

[pumper]

<pump water out of flooded tin mines<

that is scary.

& bottled water is often just 'filtered' tap water .. probably different levels of filtering.

an article in the Bangkok Post on Bangkok bottled water several years ago was frightening .. fecal bacteria above safe in the bottled water!

a friend of a friend in the US has a bottled water biz .. his spring water is filtered city tap water, hate to think what the criteria for labeling in LOS is.

this is a concern of mine (looking at a retirement visa to phuket in jan '08) .. contaminated food & water in the 3rd world where truth in labeling is same same as comic book fact checking...

I've avoided prawns from the farms in chayo praya delta ever since I took a long tail boat ride from taksin bridge through thon buri .. CP water was nasty nasty nasty .. w/ diesel odor

but, saw thai lasses washing their hair in thon buri klongs..