Serious water shortages

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From ABC News

BANGKOK -- Thailand should brace for serious water shortages when the hot season begins in March after a year with unusually little rainfall, one of the country's top water management officials said Monday.

Retention of water by dams in upstream areas of the Mekong River also is seen as contributing to record-low water levels in the river, affecting the region's ecology.

Somkiat Prajumwong, director-general of Thailand's Office of National Water Resources, said the river will experience record-low levels, after already recording new records this past year.

His agency is warning people along the Mekong to beware of river bank slides and prepare for serious water shortages in March and April, when temperatures in Thailand usually peak.

Tests of China's new upstream Jinghong dam on Jan. 1-3 are expected to lead to a drop in the the Mekong's water level by as much as 1 meter (3.3 feet) along eight northern and northeastern Thai provinces, said the water resources agency.

Restrictions on water use from some Thai dams were imposed by late December, according to a report in the Bangkok Post newspaper. It quoted the head of Thailand's Royal Irrigation Department, Thongplew Kongjun, as saying that water from the Ubol Ratana and Chulabhorn dams was being reserved for consumption and ecological conservation, rather than for growing crops, because of their low levels.

The Mekong River Commission already warned that severe to extreme drought was expected to hit Thailand and Cambodia at least until January. The regional agency, to which Laos and Vietnam also belong, blamed insufficient wet season rainfall, an abbreviated period of monsoon rains and unusually high temperatures and evaporation caused by El Nino, a cyclical climate phenomenon originating with warming water in the Pacific Ocean.

The commission said in a paper issued at its annual meeting in November that the long-term prognosis was bleak, as the Lower Mekong Basin for the past few decades “has been experiencing severe drought hazards with serious economic losses due to damages of agricultural crops, negative impacts on the environment, and effects on people's livelihoods.”

The issue involving dams was vividly illustrated about a month ago, when the Mekong River acquired an aquamarine color due to the water becoming clear and reflecting the sky, replacing its usual yellowish-brown shade that is due to the sediment it normally carries downstream.

Experts blamed the large Xayaburi hydroelectric dam upstream in Laos that began operating in October for causing the color change.

The dam blocks much sediment from moving farther downstream, which accounts for the water becoming clear, Pravit Kanthaduang, a fishery official in Thailand's Bueng Kan province, said earlier this month. Less sediment means less nutrition for plants and fish in the river, threatening the ecological balance, he said.

 

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/thai-official-warns-water-shortages-due-weather-dams-67979976

 

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From Bangkok Post

Chao Phraya dam water critically low

CHAI NAT: The water in the Chao Phraya dam reservoir in Sapphaya district is at a critically low level due to the unrelenting and spreading drought, and the rate of discharge is again being reduced.

As of Monday morning, the water level on the northern side of the dam was at only 13.45 metres, below the standard retention level of 16.50m.

This indicates this year's drought is more serious than last year's, when the water level on Jan 20 was 15.60m.

If there is no fresh inflow from the North, the amount of water would fall below the operating level in four months, local reports said.

The Chao Phraya dam is currently discharging water at the limited rate of 75 million cubic metres per second - only enough to maintain the ecological system and push back the salty water in the Chao Phraya river.

Officials said water must be kept at an operating level for as long as possible as the dry season is unlikely to end soon.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1839744/chao-phraya-dam-water-critically-low