Enough water for high season, say officials
PHUKET: Rain over the past few weeks has boosted the volume of water in the Bang Wad reservoir to 5.5 million cubic meters, which is enough to meet expected demand until the end of May, water officials believe.
Isara Anukul, Chief of the Water Allocation Division of the Phuket Irrigation Office (PIO), noted, “Normally the rainy season arrives at the beginning of May. I think the rain will arrive in time to meet demand after that date.”
In the meantime, the Phuket Office of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (ODPM) has drawn up a plan to locate areas that can be used to collect smaller pockets of water in line with HM the King’s Gaem Ling (Monkey’s Cheek) Project, which calls for the building of small reservoirs and ponds to store water and allow for controlled drainage.
Meanwhile Sayun Vareearunrod, Manager of the Phuket Waterworks Office (PWO), told the Gazette that there is still a problem supplying enough water to Patong.
“Our job is to distribute water. But demand is currently much higher than the maximum amount we can pump – we distribute up to 40,800 cubic meters a day to support 22,000 homes in the area around the outside of Phuket City and in Kathu District [including Patong].”
However, he said, supply in Patong will improve when the planned desalination plant in Karon – converting sea water into potable water – comes online.
Construction of the plant will take six months, he said, so it should be complete by mid-year. “Then we will produce an additional 6,000 cubic meters a day,” he said.
Meanwhile, work on a 311-million-baht sewage treatment plant near the bypass road and close to Klong Bang Yai is expected to be completed by March, 2008.
The plant will take sewage from households in Kathu – it will be able to treat more than 6,000 cubic meters of effluent a day – before releasing it into the klong.
The plant is being built by Suwannabhumi Engineering & Consulting, which will run it for a year after completion to give time for Kathu Municipality staff to be trained to operate it.
