Shrinking Pattaya Reservoirs

[forcebwithu 4,853]

Recent news reports are painting a dire picture for the area water supply over the coming months. I had a nice bike ride around Mabprachan this morning to check the situation out and take a few pics that can serve as a baseline of how bad the lake level gets as we head into the dry season. Currently nowhere near as bad as the pics in post #1 from September, 2015, but we may get there.

Lake level looks ok in the view to the north

But the overflow outlet on this end of the lake shows just how low the lake level has gotten. The bottom of the darker portion of the concrete marks the normal high water mark.

In Sept, 2015 this side of the lake, the northwest end, was a mud hole (first pic in post #1). 

Maybe in a couple of months this guy can walk to his fishing camp.

View from the north end looking south.

Nong Prue Park is getting ready for Loy Krathong celebrations this evening.

In this pic you can see the land strip, normally underwater, that was used to hold back the water from the south end while they dug out the north end to increase capacity. I was on my skinny tired road bike today. On another day I'll take my mtn bike and see just how far out on the land strip I can ride.

The bike path around the lake is now complete. They really did an excellent job on this path as it's completely separate from SCC Rd. So you can ride the 9 km loop without worrying about getting sideswiped by passing traffic. One negative though is a short section across from the Wat on the northeast side has a barrier of barb wire along the path. Not good if you're admiring the lake view and stray off the path even just a little bit. IMHO, a length of rope would have sufficed instead of barbwire.

Some shots of rock outcroppings that are normally underwater.

 

[Bazle 1,485]

So what do we do to prepare for a dry season water shortage?

I assume/hope it will not affect bottled water. Can anyone confirm that?

[VPI78 11,498]

25 minutes ago, Bazle said:

So what do we do to prepare for a dry season water shortage?

I assume/hope it will not affect bottled water. Can anyone confirm that?

Bottled water in Thailand comes from a combination of sources; tap, well, underground, and springs.

Most of Thailand's spring water comes from the north, and in the central regions only 3 or 4 companies are licensed to pump water from underground sources to make bottled water.

In the Pattaya area bottled water unless sold/distributed from the above northern sources, tends to be from well and tap water which will not dry up as much as become more costly to produce as the water has a higher mineral and salts/calcium carbonates content in drought conditions and becomes more expensive to filter.

But about the only effects on consumers will be pricing will go up nominally; likely not enough to notice, e.g., a 12-pack of 600 Ml bottles at Makro might go from 45 to 49 baht.

 

[jacko 8,814]

For houses one has to order a truck/ tanker to come deliver and fill your tank up. I have never had to do this in my current place, but my prior rental I had to do it quite often. The pipework was rubbish there, always failing and even when there was water it had hardly any pressure and those with below ground tanks fared better. Trouble is once this system gets organised and palms are being greased, one finds utility water is being cut more often by a guy with some money in his pocket.

My neighbour has an automatic sprinkler system and a monthly water bill of around 4000 baht, that won't help supplies. Another actually had a bore hole but it has dried up. My Mrs uses water like it is a never ending supply, house cleaning day a small pool's worth gets used. Why anyone needs to flush a toilet 3 times per visit I never could understand.

Edited November 11, 2019 by jacko

[forcebwithu 4,853]

Nice day for a bike ride, so took my mtn bike out to Mabprachan reservoir to see if it was now low enough to ride across.

Entered the bike path around the reservoir on the SW end.

Compared to the pic from last month, the water level at the overflow outlet looks to be down another meter. Pic from today.

And from 10 Nov

Imagine the volume of water lost from the reservoir. The high water mark is the dark patch of concrete about 6m up from the water.

The new and quite a bit larger beach on the NW end.

Unfortunately my hope of being able to ride across the lake bottom was dashed when I encountered numerous channels that blocked me from my goal.

And no, I wasn't about to cheat by using this "bridge".

Still an island, but not for much longer.

Same view from 10 Nov

With another 5+ months to go before the next rainy season, there's a good chance this island will look like it did on 7 Sept 2015.

The birds don't see to be bothered by the low water level.

But this guy can no longer cast a line from his front porch.

Same view from 10 Nov

I'm now on the north end looking south when I noticed more and more of the birds taking flight.

I use to fly sailplanes for fun and I'm pretty sure what happened is my riding the mtn bike across the dry ground on the north end kicked loose a thermal. Use to see that quite a bit when I flew in Wisconsin. When I was getting low I'd look for a farmer plowing his field and it was almost a sure bet if I loitered around the area for a few minutes I would be rewarded with a thermal to gain back altitude in. Anyhoo, the birds probably saw a few of their friends having fun in the thermal and soon the whole extended family joined them.

 

They might have to soon rename the reservoir to Mabprachan Desert.

These guys standing around in the middle of the reservoir demonstrate it isn't that deep in parts.

This is another marker of how low the water level is.

Soon the outlet channel will be higher than the water and this part will turn into a stagnant pond.

[Rawhide2 1,343]

Quite startling and now into the dry season for what 4-5 months will there be anything left come start of May ??

[jacko 8,814]

I was in an 'ahem' 'establishment' yesterday and they had no incoming water. Whether it was anything to do with the damned roadworks outside I am unsure. It doesn't bide well for the rest of the dry season. 

[forcebwithu 4,853]

3 hours ago, jacko said:

I was in an 'ahem' 'establishment' yesterday and they had no incoming water. Whether it was anything to do with the damned roadworks outside I am unsure. It doesn't bide well for the rest of the dry season. 

Along 3240 on the north side of the reservoir they're laying and connecting new water pipes. 

There's also a notice a lot of the darkside will be without water today. Although I saw a post on another forum that said the water outages have been happening for a few days now.

[Butch 3,456]

22 hours ago, jacko said:

I was in an 'ahem' 'establishment' yesterday and they had no incoming water. Whether it was anything to do with the damned roadworks outside I am unsure. It doesn't bide well for the rest of the dry season. 

How did you get the Oil off then? ??

[jacko 8,814]

4 hours ago, Butch said:

How did you get the Oil off then? ??

They had one of those big tubs and a plastic cup, and fortunately for me (not for who pays the bills), I think it had previously been topped off from the electric shower. So tepid. Those run down places without water tanks, pumps and electric showers will not be seeing my custom. 

Oh... and I often ask for lotion.... 

Edited December 11, 2019 by jacko

[forcebwithu 4,853]

It's been two weeks and two days since the last update, so hopped on my bike and had a very enjoyable ride this morning around what remains of Mabprachan Reservoir.

Starting again on the southwest side.

More spots that were previously underwater are now exposed.

Wish they would mount a water level gage to this structure. I'm estimating the water is down another 1/2 meter or so since the last update.

I wonder how much longer it will be before this guy can walk to his fishing camp.

They're now having to pump water from the low spots.

Another couple of weeks and there will be no need for a bridge over this channel.

A babbling brook in the middle of what was once a lake.

The island is now a peninsula.

On the north end looking south.

Fishing is a lot easier when they fish are trapped in what remains of the water on the north end.

Mabprachan is fast becoming a lush meadow. Can't really call it "lush" as the dominant flora are thorn bushes.

A bit of a technical ride to get out to the far end of this exposed rock outcropping.

Had to ride over a lot of broken shells and gnarly rocks to get to the far end, but this was the view looking back.

And the view towards the dam at the west end of the reservoir.

Now back at the southwest side. I see they've closed off the channel into the pond within a lake and are now having to pump water into the pond.

At the rate the water level is dropping it doesn't bode well for the Pattaya area in the coming months. As the next rainy season is a long way off, I expect we'll see severe water rationing measures to conserve what little remains of the water supply.

[BeerBelly 1,026]

As much rain as Thailand gets, it's a wonder how it's possible there can be a water shortage. This is just poor mismanagement of resources. We are not living in a desert or arid region. The average annual rainfall is 1117.6mm, that's a little more than Washington DC and about double what London gets (583.6mm).

[forcebwithu 4,853]

Made it out to Huai Chak Nok Reservoir today. Water level is looking pretty dire there too. Here's the view from the dam end on the NW side.

Close up of the outflow structure to use as a benchmark for the water level.

A lot of what was once under water on the south end of the dam is now dry.

Here's a screenshot of the satellite view of the reservoir with a maker of where the above pic was taken. Image is from Nov, 2018 and gives an idea of how far the water has receded.

They have pumps going to move trapped water on the south end into what remains of the reservoir.

It's going to be quite a while before this overflow outlet will be needed again.

A bit of hike from this side of the reservoir to get to the water's edge.

The cows are enjoying their new pasture land.

The view from the north end looking south towards the dam in the far distance.

And on the other side of the road, looking north.

Easy pickings for the fishermen.

Side note: I've edited the topic title to reflect that posts here cover all the shrinking water sources for Pattaya.

[forcebwithu 4,853]

Time for another bi-weekly update on the shrinking Mabprachan Reservoir. For this update the Google Earth screenshot below has markers that identify where a picture was taken. It will also give you a good idea of how much water has been lost from the reservoir. Satellite image is from Nov 5, 2018.

Pic 1

Best estimate, down another 1/2 m from the last update on 26 December. 

Pic 2: Pretty soon the pumping station will be sucking more sand than water.

This water intake has been left high and dry for some time now.

Pic 3: The water in the channel is now shallow enough to walk across, but the problem is you'd be up to your knees in mud.

Pic 4: Hard to see in this pic, but you can now walk, or in my case ride a mtn bike to the island without getting wet. 

Pic 5: A small waterfall where once was a lake.

Pic 6: You can now walk to the fishing camp that once required a boat to access. 

Pic 7

pic 8

Pic 9: View from the north side of what's left of the reservoir.

Pic 10

Pic 11: Standing near the north end of what remains of the main body of water in the reservoir. I'll mark how far the water has receded in future updates.

Pic 12: Rode out to a point near the middle of the reservoir that used to underwater.

Pic 13: Another path you can walk or ride out into the middle of the reservoir.

Pic 14: View from the end of that path.

Pic 15

Pic 16: Looks like they increased the height of the retaining wall of the pond.

[jacko 8,814]

They are putting new pipes in around my area, and as per usual, the digging hit the old pipes and a nearby street became a river. My Mrs asked the security man of a village there, did you call water people for fix... he looked at her as if she was mad, sort of 'why should I get involved?' Nobody arrived for a long time, these things often seem to happen on a Friday late afternoon. My water was out all night, but back on in the morning. Other than that, the water seems to be going off, or very low pressure, late mornings to mid afternoon now, but I have a tank. Anybody else getting regular cuts? 

[forcebwithu 4,853]

I have two tanks. The one that's topped up from the city water supply is underground so can't tell when the supply is cut. The second one is above ground and topped up from the underground tank. That tank then feeds the house through a pressure booster pump, so always have good water pressure.

Since my lady's main hobby is her garden, I estimate we use about 100L every two days for watering the garden. For that I just installed a 1000L tank to collect rainwater runoff from the roof gutters. All we need now is a good downpour to fill that tank and we're good for 20 days with no rain.

[jacko 8,814]

21 hours ago, forcebwithu said:

I have two tanks. The one that's topped up from the city water supply is underground so can't tell when the supply is cut. The second one is above ground and topped up from the underground tank. That tank then feeds the house through a pressure booster pump, so always have good water pressure.

Since my lady's main hobby is her garden, I estimate we use about 100L every two days for watering the garden. For that I just installed a 1000L tank to collect rainwater runoff from the roof gutters. All we need now is a good downpour to fill that tank and we're good for 20 days with no rain.

My rainwater collection is off the gutter into 2 plastic bins.... that is all pretty much gone. A single tank for house supply, 2500l can keep me going probably for a week but only if the Mrs is told. I run all of it through the tank as it comes out cleaner and I even add a touch of chlorine to it...... so if my utility supply goes off I wouldn't know unless I took a look at the pressure gauge... yes I put one in! If my electric is off I can bypass the tank. 

I was in the garden yesterday listening to the pump kick in and out as my Mrs cleaned house, boy can that woman waste water. Thais seem to really like spray nozzles!

[midlifecrisis 4,048]

2 hours ago, jacko said:

My rainwater collection is off the gutter into 2 plastic bins.... that is all pretty much gone. A single tank for house supply, 2500l can keep me going probably for a week but only if the Mrs is told. I run all of it through the tank as it comes out cleaner and I even add a touch of chlorine to it...... so if my utility supply goes off I wouldn't know unless I took a look at the pressure gauge... yes I put one in! If my electric is off I can bypass the tank. 

I was in the garden yesterday listening to the pump kick in and out as my Mrs cleaned house, boy can that woman waste water. Thais seem to really like spray nozzles!

Keeping in shape for Songkran. 

[aj 62]

took mom inlaw to las vegs 10 years back. went for drive in desert

down to needles her comment on everything brun up dead.

why they no water it.

moral to this is thais have no concept of life with little or no water

[jacko 8,814]

2 hours ago, aj said:

moral to this is thais have no concept of life with little or no water

I was with a colleague from the Mid East in upstate New York, he was dumbfounded that Ontario was a fresh water lake!

[forcebwithu 4,853]

Seventeen days since the last update so time for another shrinking Mabprachan Reservoir update. Here's the Google Earth overview of the route this morning with markers where the pictures were taken (Satellite image Nov 5, 2018).

Pic 1

Pic 2

Pic 3

Down another .5m since 11 January.

Pic 4: The lake now supports two modes of transportation.

Pic 5

Pic 6: I think we'll soon be able to see just how deep the channel is to the pumping station.

Pic 7: What remains in this pocket of water is too small for the big blue pump. They're now using a smaller pump just on the other side of the big pump.

Pic 8: As it turns out I didn't need to use the rickety log bridge. There was a land bridge on the other side of the pump in the above picture that allowed me to ride my mtn bike to the other side.

Pic 9: All that's left of the lake in parts is a marsh.

Pic 10

Pic 11: The lake has receded enough so I could ride my mtn bike across the lake bed to the other side.

Pic 12: The fishing camp is now high and dry.

For comparison, the fishing camp on 11 November, view is from the other side of the camp in the above picture.

Pic 13: Last time the water was this low was September, 2015. That year it was only one month until the start of the rainy season. This year we're eight months from any appreciable amount of rain.

Same view from September, 2015.

Pic 14

Pic 15

Pic 16

Pic 17

Pic 18: This is the view of the current northern edge of the main body of water left in the reservoir.

Pic 19

Pic 20: Let's see how far out I can get on the bike.

Pic 21: The ground is a bit soft and mushy in spots, but still rideable.

Pic 22: Made it to the other side.

Pic 23: Not much water left to pump into the retaining pond on the edge of the reservoir.

At the current rate of water consumption, my guess is we have at most two months of water left in the reservoir.
The Chonburi government really needs to act now to protect what little remains of the main water supply for Pattaya, and pigs may fly.

[forcebwithu 4,853]

Did a bit of internet sleuthing and found this document with a list of reservoirs and their users. Turns out there are nine that provide water to Pattaya.

Wish I could task a satellite for real time imagery, but as I'm retired CIA I guess I'll have to do it the old fashion way with feet on the ground to get pics of the current water levels.

 

Edited January 29, 2020 by forcebwithu
added Nong Kho Reservoir

[forcebwithu 4,853]

More internet sleuthing led me to an article in the Bangkok Post from 2014 that made for interesting reading.
Running taps a pipe dream in Pattaya

And from that article...
"Mr Wanchai said East Water only delivers raw water to treatment plants run by the PWA in Pattaya. At that point, the company’s responsibility ends, and it is up to the PWA to take care of the infrastructure which processes the raw water and delivers it to people’s homes."

"Pattaya water is sourced from five different natural reservoirs, while the PWA also has the contract to buy raw water from East Water in case water from the reservoirs is not enough to meet demand.
Mr Wanchai from East Water explained that Chon Buri usually suffers more shortages than neighbouring Rayong province since the water reservoir in the area is small and unable to feed the whole town at the same time."

Looking at the the East Water website I found this image of the water grid. Keep in mind this grid doesn't show the infrastructure PWA uses to source water from the reservoirs under their control.

Even more interesting was the Water Volume of a Reservoir that shows the current storage volume as of 20 January. Not looking good for us.

There's also another page called the Weekly Water Situation. Even though it says weekly, the last report was as of 17 January. Lots of pretty graphs in the situation report. The one that caught my eye was this one that lists water volume as of the 17th at 88.29 Million Cubic Meters (MCM). If I'm reading the chart correctly the target for this month was 240 MCM, but at 88 MCM that puts us in the Severe Water Shortage Warning band.

[forcebwithu 4,853]

The weekly water situation report as of 31 January has been posted on the EW site (link). In the week since their last update the reservoirs are down about 6 million cubic meters. Assuming the trend is linear that means we have about seven weeks before we hit the minimum storage volume of 31 MCM.

Edited February 1, 2020 by forcebwithu

[awesum4 2,333]

Hopefully the rains will come and the reservoirs refill before I come over in July.

When I was in Buriram last August the farmers I spoke to were complaining how dry the wet season was. Hopefully 2020 will be back to normal.