Bangkok's tap water may run out in a month

This Major World City Is Running Out Of Water

Think Progress,

7 July, 2015

In Thailand, every year has a hot season, a dry season, and a monsoon season. But authorities are saying the most recent dry season — which should have ended in June — has turned into a full-fledged drought, and drinking water reserves in the nation’s capital of Bangkok only hold enough for another 30 days.

More than 14 million people live in the Bangkok metropolitan area. The city gets most of its drinking water from the Chao Phraya river, which runs through the center of the city into the Gulf of Thailand a few miles downstream. During a drought, seawater can flow upstream, turning the river brackish, Reuters reported this week. The local water company is not equipped to purify salty water.

Not only was the hot season extra hot this year, the country also started the dry season with below-normal reserves. Last November, when the rainy season ended, the three major dams used for water storage had about 60 percent as much water as usual for that time, Thanasak Watanathana, governor of the Metropolitan Waterworks Authority, told Reuters. The water level in some city canals is more than a meter below the “alarm level,” according to the Prime Minister’s Office.

“Right now, there is only enough water in the dams to distribute for about 30 more days — if it doesn’t rain,” Thanasak said. Reuters also reported that the water service has asked Bangkokians to limit their water use.

Two Bangkok residents, though, told ThinkProgress they have not heard anything about water conservation efforts.

People aren’t worried enough, said Bangkok resident Narut Sutakawatin. “Then again, I’m not an expert. This might eventually be nothing,” he wrote on Twitter. He pointed to data from the government’s water-tracking app. The first shows Pasak dam, in central Thailand. The second is Kundan Prakanchol, in Nakhon-Nayok province, northeast of Bangkok.

Water level in dams doesn’t look that dramatic when compare to year before, …#ThailandDrought pic.twitter.com/cLHi7HTbpl

— Ruud (@s_narut) July 7, 2015

It’s true that low reservoirs are certainly not a new problem for Thailand, which has long proposed improving its water system to prevent catastrophic flooding and to preserve more water for the dry times. But it’s getting worse, experts say, and climate change threatens to exacerbate the issues.

Drought and flooding are two sides of the same climate change coin. As temperatures increase worldwide, water evaporates more quickly and dry spells become worse. At the same time, warm air can hold more water vapor, so rains can be heavier. In the past five years, Thailand has experienced its worst droughts and floods of the past few decades.

As if that weren’t enough, Bangkok, built on marshland and originally crisscrossed with canals — which are now mostly filled in — sinks nearly 4 inches each year, according to the Climate Institute. Coupled with rising sea levels, this means Bangkok could be underwater within 10 to 15 years, the group reported.

And cycles of intense drought and flooding can exacerbate that process. Just last week, Thai newspaper the Nation reported that roads are sinking and collapsing in the drought-stricken province just north of Bangkok.

While drinking water in the capital is running low, the whole country is facing damaging effects of drought. Thailand is the rice capital of the world, and the crop is expected to be low this year, after farmers have already been asked to delay their planting in central Thailand. The disruption could lead to protests and economic woes, farmers have said.

Thailand’s electricity system also depends on water supplies. The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) issued a warning this week that the letting too much water out of dams would be problematic.

From the Bangkok Post

Bangkok's tap water becoming salty

A watergate in Chai Nat province no longer serves its purpose on July 7 as the water level of the Chao Phraya River at the Chao Phraya Dam was at the lowest level in 40 years. (Photo by Chudate Seehawong)

MWA: Bangkok's tap water may run out in a month

Bangkok's tap water supply may run out in a month, as the country waits for long overdue rains to replenish sources depleted by drought and threatened by seawater creep, the chief of the capital's water authority said.

Thailand is suffering its worst drought in more than a decade. In an effort to maintain water levels in the dams that supply water for agriculture in the provinces as well as taps in the capital Bangkok, the government has asked farmers to refrain from planting rice since last October.

Despite these measures, water levels are critically low in the three key reservoirs that flow into the Chao Phraya River, one of the two main sources of Bangkok's tap water.