An extreme drought is wreaking havoc in Thailand

[hhfarang]

"The worst drought in 10 years is causing havok for Thailand’s agricultural sector and reigniting rural-urban tensions in the wake of the 2014 coup.

Thailand is facing its worst drought in ten years, as the government seeks to prevent mass crop failures.

The Thai government has implemented various water saving measures in efforts to ensure reservoirs can sustain the country until the end of the dry season in May.

The National Water Board has directed farmers not to use water for irrigation, instead rationing existing water stocks for personal use (drinking, cleaning, bathing). The Thai government has also set aside $96 million to drill an additional 4,300 wells to tap into ground water reservoirs.

Moreover, Thailand is also filling dams to maximum and considering partially diverting the waters of the Yuan and Salween rivers.

These rivers lie on the border with Myanmar, so Thailand’s foreign ministry has been actively negotiating with Burmese authorities on a deal regarding the international waterways.
Thailand faces diminished agricultural yields

The drought threatens the livelihoods of a significant portion of Thais, as some 40 percent of the population continues to work in agriculture, despite the country’s ‘recently industrialized’ status.

While farmers are facing restrictions on crop irrigation this year, last year they were also told to limit water use, and plant alternative, less water intensive crops. The government even set up a multi-million dollar fund to aid drought affected farmers. ..."

More here: http://www.businessinsider.com/extreme- ... and-2016-1

[Bluesky]

Not sure how all this drilling will impact on the aquifers given the current limited ability to effectively recharge them through sufficient rainfall. Also the contamination of aquifers from surface seepage as they are depleted. something for those with a background to better comment on.

An interesting study for Kok river basin aquifers



http://www.uni-kassel.de/fb14/geohydrau ... _Arlai.pdf

[usual suspect]

NONE of the bigger land-owners will stop irrigating their sugar-cane etc..they see themselves above the law..just look at the farmers who were ordered to stop the practice of 'slash+burn' up around Chaing Mai..we all can see how good the air is
up there now..no smog whatsoever...err NOT!
Plus the livelihood of 1000's of small farmers & their villages are of no concern to the powers-that-be in BKK..just look how they all never got paid for their annual rice crop a couple of yrs back.
But I bet when the crops have withered there'll still be plenty of water for Songkran.

[Big Boy]

I've read through the above, but nowhere does it say what restrictions have been imposed on the average man on the street. Have any domestic restrictions been announced please?

[lomuamart]

Talking about domestic usage, do people remember a few years ago that if your bill was below 100 THB for the month there was no charge?
That was a novel way to try and get people to economise. I never saw any stats to show whether it worked.

[HHTel]

With all the info going around about the serious drought and even more so in Hua Hin, you still see people spending most of the day watering the road outside their shop/business/restaurant. A sense of responsibility for the environment doesn't seem to exist!

[Pleng]

With all the info going around about the serious drought and even more so in Hua Hin, you still see people spending most of the day watering the road outside their shop/business/restaurant.

Thanks for bringing this up.... I have been meaning to ask for a long time.... why do people do this? What is achieved by watering concrete???

[PeteC]

^ To keep the dust down and subsequently stop it from entering their shops as traffic passes by. It's been going on forever here. Pete

[StevePIraq]

I posted before but it didn't register so here it is again.

A few nights ago the PM did his weekly speech on TV in Thai with subtitles. He stressed very strenuously that's farmers must diversify their crops and stop planting more and more rice, rubber, and some other crops, the reasons were simple.
1. The is a severe drought and the coming year there will be restriction on water to the entire population
2. The overseas market for rice, rubber etc. is oversupplied.
3. Next year the government will not pay farmers for crops that cannot be sold.

I spoke with my wife about this and her comment was Thailand have plenty water, we always grow rice and the government must buy. It was more than apparent that the Thaksin governments have blinded the masses to the problems by buying crops at exorbitant prices.

The wife's extended family has huge areas of rice farm land in Isaan, Even though I have no experience in farming I know one has to diversify and rotate crops, but not in Thailand, the family refuse to even discuss diversifying.

[STEVE G]

Whilst I agree that agricultural subsidies are a bad idea, I don't think you can blame subsistance Issan rice farmers for drought as they're generally using localised rainfall to produce one crop a year and that water wouldn't end up in reservoirs if they weren't farming. The problem is caused by large scale farming in the central basin that is using irrigation from rivers to produce two or three crops annually.