5-month water supply in Central Plains as abandoned mines eyed to store water

Reservoirs in the Central Plain hold about five-months' supply for general consumption, including Bangkok. Meanwhile disused mines are being prepared for water storage.

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5-month water supply in Central Plain as abandoned mines eyed to store water

Chudate Seehawong and online reporters

About 4% of villages nationwide are suffering from water shortages, but reservoirs in the Central Plain hold about five-months' supply for general consumption, including Bangkok.

Chatchai Promlert, director-general of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, said on Wednesday that 3,092 villages in 13 provinces in the North, the Central Plain and the Northeast had been declared drought-stricken areas and they accounted for 4.12% of all villages in the country.

Twelve of the provinces lack water for agriculture. They are Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Kanchanaburi, Khon Kaen, Maha Sarakham, Nakhon Phanom, Nakhon Ratchasima, Phayao, Phitsanulok, Roi Et, Sa Kaeo and Surin.

Uttaradit province lacks water for general consumption, Mr Chatchai said.

His department was distributing water to affected people and supporting local administration organisations in drilling artesian wells.

In the Central Plain, the water level upstream from the Chao Phraya dam in Sapphaya district of Chai Nat province was critically low at 13.97 metres above mean sea level. It had remained below the safe level of 14 metres for three weeks.

Another view of the Chao Phraya dam taken on January 12.

The release rate at the dam was maintained at 75 cubic metres per second only to hold back seawater and feed tap water production in Central Plain provinces, including Bangkok. Water supplies for agriculture have already been stopped there.

The present level of reserved water would be enough for consumption over the next 173 days, or about five months, until May, according to the dam management.

Meanwhile, the Bangkok Post's Pawee Sirimai reports from Saraburi that the Primary Industries and Mines Department is preparing 36 disused mines for water storage to help address the drought crisis.

If the mines can be used as planned, their combined capacity will be 166 million cubic metres, said director-general Chat Hongtiamchant.

He said his department found 36 mines whose mining licences had expired or whose operations had stopped and which could potentially be used as reservoirs.

The department has instructed these mines on how to develop water reserves from mine pits and believe they will be completed this year. Nine mines already store 32 million cubic metres of water.

"In the Northeast, which is expected to be the most affected by drought, we've found 11 or 12 potential mines in Surin, Ubon Ratchathani, Nong Bua Lam Phu and Loei," Mr Chat said.

"But they don't have much capacity, just 500,000 or 1 million cu m apiece."

He said water reserves in these mines could be used in the agriculture sector and public utilities since most of them were stone quarries and did not contain toxins.

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