Call for more care in water use
PHUKET: Arun Kerdsob, Chief of the Phuket Office for Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (ODPM), has urged islanders not to waste water.
“The provincial office has set up a center to try to prevent severe shortages, while the managing committee is overseeing water distribution. There are 86 deep wells and 92 tin mine lagoons on the island, making up a total of 24.5 million cubic meters [of water] in the province.”
Not all of this water is available for public distribution, however. Many of the deep wells and tin mine lagoons are privately owned and are not linked to the main supply. The island’s only reservoir, at Bang Wad, currently holds just 3.4 million m3.
“Phuket uses about 72,000 m3 of water per day so if we calculate on the rain starting again by the end of May, we will have enough water this year. However we still should be careful about the amount of water used.”
He added, “Not every district was affected by water shortages last year, but we still have to plan ahead. We will have 23 water pumps [to pump water from tin mines] and 100 water trucks to distribute it – all this is covered by a budget of about 50 million baht.
“We plan to have weekly meetings with the media so as to keep the public informed. In the meantime we urge people to control their water use.”
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