Princess voices drought fears Grisada forms 'war room' to aid farmers. Surin.

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gotlost

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Lam Paw Dam in Kalasin
Not enough water left for rice farmers in Northeast

national March 05, 2019 01:00

By THE NATION



A WATER SHORTAGE is threatening to soon strike several northeastern provinces.


At risk are Roi Et, Maha Sarakham and Yasothon. Some parts of the Chi River in Yasothon are already running dry and the water level in the Maha Sarakham-based Wang Yang Dam is running low.

Songwut Kitworawut, who manages an irrigation project in Khon Kaen province, said that several communities in northeastern provinces had asked that more water be released from Ubolrat Dam to help them cope with the ongoing dry season.

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Ubolrat Dam




“Requests have come from Khon Kaen, Yasothon, Roi Et and Maha Sarakham,” he said. “But the truth is that the Ubolrat Dam is now just 29 per cent full.”

Songwut said that while there was 699 million cubic metres of water left in the Ubolrat Dam, only 117.6 million cubic metres could be used. The rest needed to be retained to sustain the dam’s structure.

Although Khon Kaen province’s Ubolrat is a substantial asset when full, the 117.6 million cubic metres of surplus water contained within accounts for just 5 per cent of its total capacity.

The Royal Irrigation Depart-ment’s deputy director-general, Dr Taweesak Thanadechophol, said the country’s medium and large dams had a total of 26,758 million cubic metres of water on March 1. Of this, the four major dams on the Chao Phraya River Basin had only 7,907 million cubic metres of disposable water, he added.

Taweesak added that the water-management plan for irrigated areas during the ongoing dry season (November 1, 2018 to April 30, 2019) set aside 23,100 million cubic metres of water for public use, of which 8,000 million cubic metres of water was for the Chao Phraya River Basin.

As of March 1, the country’s irrigated areas had already used 62 per cent of the permitted total and that figure increased to 76 per cent for the Chao Phraya River Basin area.

Taweesak said it would be necessary to strictly control water usage in areas where key dams had already declined to below 30 per cent full. These were Ubolrat, Thap Sela and Krasiao dams.

Reserved for special reasons

“Water from these dams should now be mainly used for consumption and ecological protection only,” he said.

He added that 17 other major dams were now between 30 and 60 per cent full. “People living in areas that rely on these dams should help save water,” he said. “Grow only plants that use little water and don’t grow any more rice during this dry season.”

Taweesak added that they had formed 4,850 teams to help where needed in drought-hit areas.
 
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Of course there are those who always help the situation by watering the street in front of their house.
 
It astounds me the selfish stupidity of certain Thais. We have 2 large lakes/dams in our village, one is the village water and the other is connected to the Temple. People who live close by to our village lake seem to think it is their own and pump water out to water their crops, not rice but other vegetables. There is one guy who has just planted a crop of some description on about a football pitch sized piece of land and he floods it daily with water pumped from the lake. The water level is now the lowest anyone has seen it and, at this rate will be empty in about 2 weeks. Then these farmers will not only lose their crops but also have wasted all the petrol/electricity money form using the pumps and the village will have no lake. The big boss and his lieutenants do nothing as they are too weak to stand up to these people.

The temple lake is also at its lowest and will also be dry soon as an adjacent pig and fish farmer is pumping the hell out of it as well, it's not his water, it's the temples! Another rice farmer also pumped the hell out of it during the wet season as he was scared his crop was going to dry out and the lake has never recovered from that. Soon this farmer will have no water to steal and then he too will suffer loss.

The next village from us also has a large lake/dam and it is now dry, something that has never happened before. There are some tough times ahead.
 
Please don't mention the people that pump all the water out of their dams to get the fish and leave them empty. So all the wandering cattle and Kwai have no water and there is is none to pump onto their rice in dry spells in the wet. I have never quite have figured it out. My dam is the only full one any where, as I never empty it. It would be too bloody hard for a start. It hold 5 Mega Litres. It is not fenced. But I think I will have to this year, as the damage to the banks from 100s of thirsty bovine cost me to repair last year alone was 33,000 Baht . Has anybody had barbed wire fencing put in lately?
 
I forgot about that Rice, IDIOTS!
My wife showed me a natural billabong that she used to swim in when she was a kid, now it is dry most of the time and filthy, chemical run off from the farms have affected it as well.
 
Rice said:
Please don't mention the people that pump all the water out of their dams to get the fish and leave them empty. So all the wandering cattle and Kwai have no water and there is is none to pump onto their rice in dry spells in the wet. I have never quite have figured it out. My dam is the only full one any where, as I never empty it. It would be too bloody hard for a start. It hold 5 Mega Litres. It is not fenced. But I think I will have to this year, as the damage to the banks from 100s of thirsty bovine cost me to repair last year alone was 33,000 Baht . Has anybody had barbed wire fencing put in lately?
Click to expand...

Not recently, but typically a job for a couple of jobbing villagers on 300 baht/day. Order a hole drill bit from Amazon:

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Roughneck 68260 Post Hole Digger - Auger Type

Dig the holes and insert the concrete posts. String barbed wire around the finished job.


I wouldn't be surprised if someone around the area has the petrol driven engine with drill bit attachment to do the job. Just a question of tracking him down. Job for the father-in-law.

 
Last edited:
mario299 said:
Sorry GL:
"FREE as well as the labor.:D:D:D:D"
There's never a free lunch...
Click to expand...

Kind of free, as it is a community project, hosted on Mrs GL's land. So other community members put in for it. So it was free to the @gotlost family. But not free, so to speak.
 
Workers get to spend a night in the bovine insemination unit... ;;grimace;;...
(if they really want to).
 
Has Thailand given up on rainmaking like they used to do? Too expensive? Not enough natural clouds? Anyone know?
 
This government and all proceeding governments have said f**k YOU to Isaan and keeps All moneys for the elitist of BKK and their Bull Shit spending for high speed trains that go nowhere. They have refused to develop a water distribution system for Thailand to benefit all.:mad::mad::mad::mad::eek: Just saying.:rolleyes::D
 
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