Shrinking Pattaya Reservoirs

[jacko 8,786]

3 hours ago, forcebwithu said:

The tank feeds into a cheap, 1450B water pump. I made a mistake by using screw in elbow joints to the pump. In order to align the elbow in the correct direction, I couldn't tighten them all the way. Even after using multiple wraps of teflon tape the screw ends still have small leaks

That is cheap, more familiar with closer to 4000 baht. Too many bends near the pump isn't great but I appreciate space is usually the issue with these fittings. I often find teflon taped screw fittings leak for a while then seem to improve, providing enough tape is there. My pump is getting old and I have already sourced exactly the same model, meaning I can unscrew the bolts on the pump inlet and outlet flanges, replace the rubber rings and reuse flanges... ie a drop in. Making up new piping is much too much work. 

[forcebwithu 4,822]

2 hours ago, biggles said:

I was here in the last big water shortage many  years ago. They talked about doing it then, had lots of meetings, probably allocated a budget....... And did nothing. They did say a pipeline had been built and it would never happen again!! 

Think it was sometime around 2014/2015 they dredged out the north end and used the spoil to fill in and create the park areas on the north and northeast sides of the reservoir.

[forcebwithu 4,822]

32 minutes ago, jacko said:

That is cheap, more familiar with closer to 4000 baht. Too many bends near the pump isn't great but I appreciate space is usually the issue with these fittings. I often find teflon taped screw fittings leak for a while then seem to improve, providing enough tape is there. My pump is getting old and I have already sourced exactly the same model, meaning I can unscrew the bolts on the pump inlet and outlet flanges, replace the rubber rings and reuse flanges... ie a drop in. Making up new piping is much too much work. 

The house water supply has a more expensive Hitachi water booster pump. I went cheap on the rainwater system as it's low use, intended only for watering the garden.

[Butch 3,456]

3 hours ago, jacko said:

That is cheap, more familiar with closer to 4000 baht. Too many bends near the pump isn't great but I appreciate space is usually the issue with these fittings. I often find teflon taped screw fittings leak for a while then seem to improve, providing enough tape is there. My pump is getting old and I have already sourced exactly the same model, meaning I can unscrew the bolts on the pump inlet and outlet flanges, replace the rubber rings and reuse flanges... ie a drop in. Making up new piping is much too much work. 

Yep, that blue nylon pipe isn't the best stuff to work with I've found, and the bloody glue gets everywhere, it rips through surgical gloves as well, it must have some pretty aggressive solvent. I also tend to add a smear of silicone grouting around any joints which overlap, whether or not it does any good is anyone's guess.

3 hours ago, forcebwithu said:

The house water supply has a more expensive Hitachi water booster pump. I went cheap on the rainwater system as it's low use, intended only for watering the garden.

In the RP we had an external steel tank for the house water supply, it was fed by a lift pump via a borehole and gravity fed into the house water system, however, in Bacoor, (Manila outskirts)  we now have pressurised mains water, so the tank will be re configured as a rainwater collection system which will be used for doing the laundry, watering the garden and washing the car which I purchased but never get the chance to drive. I'm intending to put a pump in and will try to orientate it to reduce the bends as much as possible and possibly put a basic filtration system in to catch debris, but not sure if this should go in before or after the pump itself.

 

[jacko 8,786]

1 hour ago, Butch said:

but not sure if this should go in before or after the pump itself.

After the pump... pumps push far better than they pull!

[forcebwithu 4,822]

Pattaya Water Reservoir at Mapprachan Lake at lowest level in twenty years

Interesting stat from the article...

"the reservoir hit the lowest level in twenty years at 16% left of the total volume of the lake", I think that's a fair estimate of what usable water remains.

I call BS on this statement though,
"local leaders say the volume of water they have is enough to last through May when more rain is predicted"

At current consumption levels I expect the reservoir to run out of usable water by mid-April, if not sooner.

[forcebwithu 4,822]

The Eastern Water Resources dept was a bit more timely posting their weekly update. Water consumption is still at 4 million cubic meters/week, so the estimate of sucking the last drop of usable water somewhere around 17 April, if not sooner still holds true regardless of what the govt would like you to believe.

[jacko 8,786]

Yippee rain, well out in my area of Nong Plalai... anywhere else?

[tallguy 1,460]

42 minutes ago, jacko said:

Yippee rain, well out in my area of Nong Plalai... anywhere else?

Nothing in Jomtien. A bit windy but no dark clouds around.

[larrymac90 5]

Bucketing down at Mountain Shadow golf course. Pattaya remains dry.

[jacko 8,786]

9 hours ago, larrymac90 said:

Bucketing down at Mountain Shadow golf course. Pattaya remains dry.

Well North  and unlikely to top up Mapphrachan.

[midlifecrisis 4,040]

In California where I was raised, our eservoirs were in the surrounding hills. They would let water out of the reservoirs down to the valley floor to large ponds that we called percolation ponds. The water in the ponds was pumped down into the water table, to be pumped up by the water district for distribution. Ponds dry from pumping, dams release more water and the cycle continues. 

This worked because there is underground water there naturally. The process in that semi arid place prevents excessive evaporation.

Do they do a similar thing in Thailand?

[forcebwithu 4,822]

2 hours ago, midlifecrisis said:

In California where I was raised, our eservoirs were in the surrounding hills. They would let water out of the reservoirs down to the valley floor to large ponds that we called percolation ponds. The water in the ponds was pumped down into the water table, to be pumped up by the water district for distribution. Ponds dry from pumping, dams release more water and the cycle continues. 

This worked because there is underground water there naturally. The process in that semi arid place prevents excessive evaporation.

Do they do a similar thing in Thailand?

Opposite here. They concrete over huge swaths of land that once served as natural percolation ponds. Then they wonder why they have flooding in the sois.

In normal years the monsoon rains do a more than adequate job of topping up the reservoirs ahead of the dry season. Last year was drier than normal, thus the deficit in water we're now seeing.

From what I hear, outside of Pattaya a lot of housing estates and private houses use boreholes for their water supply. What I've not seen or heard of though is the city supply using the same as a backup to the reservoirs. Easy enough for the city to dig a borehole, so I hope they start digging quickly.

[midlifecrisis 4,040]

Thanks force!

[Butch 3,456]

Boreholes are a good idea and are used almost everywhere in the RP for private houses. No idea of cost but they're usually sunk, cemented in, pump fitted and linked to the tank within a day or two. Now we have mains in our area, I'm going to re engineer the former tank for rainwater collection, but will leave the lift pump attached and  plumbed in as a back up. All I need to do is install a cut off valve.

It's probably feasible to run the pump off a solar set up as well, (although I know nothing about solar set ups lol)  so for a one off investment it could give free water.

City hall don't seem too concerned about it though.

[forcebwithu 4,822]

The Eastern Water Resources dept has finally gotten around to updating their Weekly Water Situation report. The last report I posted was on 21 February, and the combined reservoir level stood then at 63.15 million cubic meters (MCM). Their 28 February report had the level at 58.76 MCM, and the latest report, 6 March reports the level is now at 55.42 MCM. That works out to a water consumption rate of 3.9 MCM/week.

We now have about 23.7 MCM of usable water left in the reservoirs,  or about 6 weeks of water left. My estimate of 17 April as the day the taps run dry still holds true.

I'm heading out now to snap pics of the Mabprachan Reservoir meadows and mud hole. Will post a photo update of Mabprachan later today.

source: https://www.eastwater.com/en/Customer/WeeklyWaterSituation

[forcebwithu 4,822]

As promised, the latest photo update of the shrinking Mabprachan Reservoir. You can see in the screenshot below today's ride spent a lot of time riding areas that used to be underwater, but is now bone dry lakebed.

First up is the southern edge of the water.

Pic 01: Still a bit of water, but not much, around the overflow structure.

Northern edge of the water.

Pic 02: Panoramic shot looking east at what's left of the main body of water in the reservoir.

Pic 03: Pumping water from the main body to the channel that leads to the pumping station.

Pic 04: Draining the last bit of water from this area.

Pic 05: North of the pumping station there is no more water to be had.

Pic 06

Pic 07

Pic 08

Pic 09

Pic 10

Pic 11: High spots in the area north of the land bridge are now becoming visible. It won't be long before the water is drained from this area too.

Pic 12: Gap in the land bridge. Still too deep to wade across.

Pic 13: This gap though can be easily waded across.

This guy provided a good example of how shallow it is around this area.

It wasn't until he reached the buoys that the water was over his head.

Dry land as of 10 Mar, 2020

Pic 14: Fishing shelter left high and dry.

Pic 15: Tree stump sentinels wondering where all the water went.

Pic 16: I imagine this cistern dates back to a time before the reservoir was built.

Pic 17: The floating pump house is no longer drawing water from what's left of the main body of water.

[TaaSaparot 11]

If you are on the Sukhumvit around 6pm. you will see Water Tankers spraying water on the shrubbery in the Central Reservation.

City Hall is certainly not worried about a water shortage.

 

[forcebwithu 4,822]

The soi I rent a house on near Klang and Sukhumvit has had no city water for two days now. Thank Buddha I have three, 1000 L tanks to hold me over until the city turns the water back on again.

[forcebwithu 4,822]

Came home about 10pm last night and passed a fire dept water truck the next soi over filling water tanks for free. Unfortunately they never made it over to our soi, but a private truck was filling tanks for a small tip. Word from my lady is the water was paid for by Hollywood Pattaya as advertising for their venue, and a local politico looking to gain favor and votes in the next election. Smart thinking on both parties parts.

The truck ran out of water before it got to our house, so my lady stayed up until midnight to wait for the trucks return. Topped up our below ground tank and my rain water collection tank for a 200B tip. Might not have needed a top up on the rainwater tank as there's an 80% chance of rain today.

She asked the driver what's going on with the lack of city water, but he didn't know. Word on the soi is the fire dept truck personnel were asked the same question, but wouldn't answer the question. That's telling in itself. Govt is being tight lipped on the reality of the water situation.

In addition to tracking the shrinking of Pattaya reservoirs, looks like I have a new metric to track. Now four days without city water.

[midlifecrisis 4,040]

Jeez. A thanks for your diligence.

[forcebwithu 4,822]

Looks like we're about to get some much needed rain.

https://weather.tmd.go.th/svp120Loop.php

[Bullfrog 2,224]

We had a drizzle earlier on today near Big C Pattaya Tai...

 

There are currently distant rumblings and dark clouds .......and a shower has started...In about an hour we will know if the new drainage system on Khao Talo is working as it normally takes that long for the floods to get into the slum area I live..

 

[forcebwithu 4,822]

Y'all can thank me for the rain. Filled the rainwater collection tank last night from the water truck, so no surprise it's raining buckets of water 12 hours later.

[Bullfrog 2,224]

Mine has already filled up!.

I just went out into the road with a gurt big stick to loosen the build up of dirt and shit in the street drain and the pressure of the water did the rest.....

Now it is a game of sit and wait to see whether I thank you or blame you......