it is noticable how few houses here have gutters and down pipes fitted- a tremendous amount of water that could be harnessed during the wet season just runs away into the sea.

Posted by Mister Ree on January 23, 2015 09:31

There is plenty of water in the Lake by Tesco Lotus.

Sorry my mistake, they seem to have illegally filled in the lake.

Posted by Tbs on January 23, 2015 10:47

" until the authorities find a way of capturing the rain "

The Romans figured this out over 2000 years ago. Learning from the history is not a strength of Thai society.

Posted by Herbert on January 23, 2015 10:57

I have noticed after living here for ten years, it seems Thai way is live for today and to hang with tomorrow. That's why gutters are not on houses, also it means cheaper building costs, save water . . . no. How about save water, bath with a friend. Er that is where Patong wastes thousands of liters of water, in the soapy massage business.

Posted by Duncan B on January 23, 2015 11:23

Herbert,
The Romans didn't have to deal with local groups opposing their plans, councils, planning authorities, environmental groups and environmental impact statements.
When they needed cheap labour for construction projects they would just invade an adjacent country. Some consider this not appropriate nowadays.
The consumption of water per person today would most likely be tenfold that of Roman times.

Posted by Manowar on January 23, 2015 12:27

Thailand gets yearly enough rain water to have a supply for the whole year.
Was it last week that near Yala some villages had to be flooded because water level in the reservoir behind the dam wat to high? All that water, were did it go? We know the answer. Create a water pipeline network ( like last century was done from Malaysia to Singapore)

Posted by Kurt on January 24, 2015 07:27

The water mafia in Chalong do very well out of the dry season paying no tax and selling unregulated amounts to Rawai, Naiharn, Patong,and Kata to those who have houses,hotels with limited water.TIT. Wells are already starting to dry up at this early stage of the season-going to be interesting.

Posted by No Nam on January 24, 2015 08:39

A pipeline from the huge dam which never runs out of water in Suarat Thani would fix the water supply problem permanently with well maintained infrastructure of coarse, there are not enough suitable sites to build dams in Phuket and keep up with the growing population

Posted by peter allen on January 24, 2015 10:54

@ Manowar, Local groups? (Water Mafia?) ,councils ?( money-money?), planning authorities? What planning, is there any planning done yet the last few years of water shortage on Phuket?Environmental impact? Of what? A water pipeline? Shortage of water instead would have indeed a negative environmental and health impact. The thai trick to stop thinking to much and not do thinks for many years is always to talk about 'budget', Than sit back, relax and wait. great life.

Posted by Kurt on January 24, 2015 13:21

We paid over 200.000 Baht to get connected to the public water system over 10 years ago. Within these 10 years, there was water running only once for about a week. Since then, waterworks claim their "pump is broken". So, it appears to be broken since 10 years. Repeated letters and requests to the waterworks did not help at all. I believe Phuket has plenty of water but the distribution is rotten and nobody does anything about it. Since 10 years!

Posted by Hajo on January 24, 2015 15:09

Kurt, I agree but the comment mainly related to what the Romans were able to achieve.
It is hard to believe that a place like Phuket does not have sufficient infrastructure to meet demand. How water is dealt with throughout the whole country is also a concern and anyone who has followed the proposed solutions to minimise flooding of BKK and the northern regions will also be left shaking their head.
While different to the supply water problem, the approach is similar to the Phuket flooding problems where the issue is looked at in isolated sections rather than being considered in an overall plan and the plan usually means reducing the flooding to one area by increasing it in another without much thought of the damage this will cause.
Having high annual rainfall is only one issue, having natural terrain suitable to capture and store a sufficient quantity of water is more difficult but from what I have seen, I doubt Phuket has the terrain suitable for a single catchment structure to enable storage a period of dry weather of say 2-3 years. It would more likely be achieved by a number of smaller local storage dams with the ability to transfer water storage between them depending on demand and local rainfall.

Posted by Manowar on January 24, 2015 22:02

Cont.
The storage infrastructure for suitable quantities of water is massive and complex. The distribution of that water is simple but expensive to initially install and ongoing maintenance.
If you take Sydney and Warragamba Dam as an example.
Total storage is 2,600,000 megalitres for a population of about 5 million. Available storage is therefore approx. 500,000 litres for every person. That's 1/5 of an Olympic swimming pool and the average usage by a person over 5 years based on about 300 lt per day.
The catchment area is 9,050 square kms or almost 18 times the size of the whole of Phuket (543sq km). Most of the catchment is unoccupied except the extreme perimeters and environmental monitoring for contaminants is strictly enforced.
Phukets population is hard to determine but reportedly 500,000 and probably more like 700,000 allowing for tourists.
It's impossible to see any area where suitable storage infrastructure could be built and having a suitable catchment to provide enough runoff flow to replenish even if you ignore the contamination for roads and occupation.
Even if you considered 2 years storage, 150 lt per day per person we would be looking at a storage facility of about 76,650 mega litres or 30,660 Olympic swimming pools in size and a catchment of 282 sq kms to service it. More than half the area of the island.
Yes, there are problems to be addressed and I doubt the solution will found on Phuket itself. To solve a problem you first have to understand that it exists, what is required and what options are available. More than likely the solution will be constructed in an adjacent provence and be piped to Phuket.

Posted by Manowar on January 24, 2015 22:53

@mManovar. Phuket isn't Australia. Different land. Here water is everywhere contained in the immense underground water table. Also there are a lot of natural lakes unexploited. The real problem is the "mafia" that controls the distribution of the water by track: a millionaire business. And second the pollution: pushing the untreated wastewaters into the ground without treatment system is the best way to soon dry.

Posted by dave on January 25, 2015 10:25

Dave,
That's exactly why you don't use natural lakes which receive runoff from urban areas nor groundwater where the quality is questionable. It's fine for hosing the garden of flushing a toilet though.
Yes obviously Phuket is not Australia and that's exactly why I changed the figures used to represent only about 20% of what would required in a developed country. Ie 300lts per person to 150 lts and 5 years storage to 2 years and we haven't even touched he issue of quality for consumption.
However, I think we can all agree that the problem will only get worse with time and expected increases in population. Any plan shouldn't just consider what is required now, it should consider what will be required in 40 or 50 years and any expenditure should focus on achieving this result in time and not just temporary or makeshift projects than solve the issue today and become redundant in a few years.
As a previous commentor stated that he had no water for 10 years on the excuse that a pump required repairs so I can only assume some distribution infrastructure exists but cannot supply due to other system deficiencies. I can imagine the frustration they must feel considering the cost they paid for this service.

Posted by Manowar on January 25, 2015 11:42

@dave, I assume you arte talking about water on Phuket, you mentioned the "natural" lakes, Phuket doesn't have any, the lakes that are here are from abandoned tin mines and being so, technically, could be filled in, the long term solution is a pipeline from the mainland... this would take a major change in the local mindset...yes Ed, change will happen, it always will, but just how long and will it be good or bad.

Posted by Laurie Howells on January 25, 2015 12:24

I can agree here with Manowar, as water storage facility requires a volume of XX or maybe XXX times of average yearly consumption. Whatever 1/5 of the island or just 1/20 of the island is necessary for a storage facility of sufficient capacity to be created, it is apparently unfeasable.

However, all that being said, still efforts to be taken to increase contribution of collected rainwater in the total water consumption.

Laurie Howells, in regard of the pipe from the mainland - we don't know where a water will find from, it well may happen as a source is too afar, a pipe is too expensive, then one of water sources because of economics may be even a desalination plant.

Posted by Sue on January 25, 2015 18:41

It's neither the mafia nor the tesco lake, inability to catch rain, build pipes etc... It's the way my girlfriend showers. She's back home right now, hows waterpressure?

Posted by Juhg on January 25, 2015 19:02

@Sue, desalination plants are an option, butyou mentioned economics, these plants are expensive to build, expensive to run and therefore the water produced is expensive, not to mention the inability for Thailand to maintain it, just look at the rubbish furnace and how poorly it is maintained. Having said that I doubt they could even maintain a simple pipeline, and pump station, installation. As for the length of a pipeline, well in 1903 Australia built one 600km's in length, just goes to show how far behind Thailand's abilities are.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldfields_Water_Supply_Scheme

Posted by Laurie Howells on January 26, 2015 05:48

I live near a lake in Kamala. It has a pumping station, operated by a very influential local family.

He operates this business now with four large trucks, the frequency of delivering is 15 to 20 min. per truck. Often starting already 5-6 am until midnight in the high season.

I assume he's not the only one in Phuket?

How much is a load of water?

Any questions?

Posted by Georg The Viking on January 26, 2015 08:40