Water saving campaign intensifies

PHUKET TOWN: Phuket Town Municipality and the Provincial Irrigation Office are dredging two tin mines near the town for use as reservoirs, in order to boost water stocks in case of another dry-season shortage. They will also lay pipes to draw water from another two tin mines in Kathu to top up the Bang Wad Reservoir. The reservoir can hold about 8.5 million cubic meters of water but in an average year only 3.79 million cubic meters runs into it. Yet during the rainy season, precious water is lost when it overflows from tin mines into Klong Bang Yai, and then into the ocean. The klong runs from Kathu, through Phuket Town, and empties into the sea at Saphan Hin. Demand for water increases every year, and the amount in the reservoir is currently only about 2 million cubic meters, less than a quarter of capacity. The new pipes will carry about 1 million cubic meters from the two Kathu tin mines to the reservoir. In an average year, Phuket Town draws about 1.2 million cubic meters from the Bang Wad Reservoir over a five-month period. During the rest of the year the municipal supply comes from nine former tin mines. Water from the reservoir is also distributed to other parts of the island by the Provincial Waterworks.