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[Kirkland]

"Thailand faces the likelihood of the most serious water shortage in five years because of the return of El Nino, the Interior Ministry's Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department warned on Monday.

Director-general Anucha Mokkhawes said the first effects would likely be felt in the upper parts of the North and Northeast regions. Irrigated zones were not hit, but outside these zones water shortages for agriculture were already in evidence.

Central and Eastern provinces had also begun to experience drought in the upper parts of the regions, and the affects would spread. The South would also be hit, but not seriously.Mr Anucha said the El Nino threat was expected to result in the lowest rainfall in five years. This would also increase the risk from forest fires.

He said farmers in 23 provinces in the Chao Phraya river basin - Kamphaeng Phet, Tak, Nakhon Sawan, Phichit, Phitsanulok, Sukhothai, Uttaradit, Uthai Thani, Bangkok, Chainat, Nonthaburi, Lop Buri, Saraburi, Sing Buri, Ang Thong, Pathum Thani, Ayutthaya, Chachoengsao, Nakhon Nayok, Samut Prakan, Suphan Buri, Samut Sakhon and Nakhon Pathom - were advised not to grow second-season rice and to instead grow short-lived crops such as beans, corn, sugarcane and cassava, which need less water."

http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/econom...-5-yrs-forecast

[DOLLY]

The authorities in Pattaya keep insisting that there is no looming water crisis but I know that the area where I live, which has a sizeable tourist and expat community, routinely has its public water supply turned off for hours at a time.If the usual pattern applies, the less affluent Thai areas are probably getting even less water. I wish I had confidence that what they are telling us is true. I can still remember a few years back in the middle of another possible water crisis when the head of the water service told an outright lie and said that a new pipeline diverting river water to Pattaya had been completed. It hadn't even been started !