A pupil of Wat Map Chalood elementary school in Rayong's Muang district takes water from a container after lunch. The school, with its water supply running low, now relies mainly on supplies donationed by an industrial estate nearby. The estate itself also faces a water shortage.— SAROT MEKSOPHAWANNAKUL |
Many of our readers’ have written in to disagree with the prime minister’s recent comment that there was no water shortage in the areas in and around the Eastern Seaboard industrial estates. One of the most striking came early last week from a German engineer who has spent the last eight years working with companies at one of the largest of those estates in Rayong province.
“Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said there was no water crisis on the Eastern Seaboard,” he wrote to Postbag on Monday.
“Allow me to take this opportunity to invite Khun Thaksin and his crew of advisers to join me at my residence in Banchang tomorrow morning for a joint shower in my bathroom. I shall provide shower cream, toothpaste, toothbrushes — towels, of course. Unfortunately, there will be no water, since none has been supplied to my house since Wednesday morning.
“Now allow me this stupid question: Is there really no water crisis?”
A short while later, another reader wrote in to confirm that was indeed no water in. Now, government leaders are finally acknowledging that a crisis is at hand. Deputy Prime Minister Phinij Jarusombat said last week that the eastern region would run out of water by the end of this month if there was no rain.
Well, tomorrow is the end of the month and it is not at all clear how industries and residents in the region are going to cope. There is no lack of projects, however. Last week, for example, the Cabinet approved in principle the spending of 284 million baht on eight new measures, including laying pipelines, water diversion projects and canal dredging. Such projects are often controversial, however, because they take much needed water away from local communities.
Meanwhile, some large industries on the Eastern Seaboard are taking matters into their own hands. Last week, Thai Olefins Plc, a petrochemical subsidiary of PTT Plc, announced that it would spend 960 million baht to try to ease water shortages at its Rayong plant and maintain full production.
The company is bringing in huge quantities of water by ship from Bangkok and it has purchased additional water from two private firms. In addition, it is digging wells, developing water storage facilities and investing in desalination units, one of which will end up costing 800 million baht.
There is still hope from Mother Nature, of course. Typically, both September and October are rainy months and let’s hope this year will be exceptionally rainy on the Eastern Seaboard. But that won’t really solve the problem and I wonder if anyone actually knows what will.
acknowledging
accepting that something is true
at hand
about to happen
cope
to deal successfully with something difficult
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in principle
in general but not in detail
diversion
changing the direction or purpose of something
dredging
removing mud, stones, etc. from the bottom of a river, canal, etc.
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controversial
causing disagreement
taking matters into their own hands
taking actions by themselves
subsidiary
owned or controlled by another country
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desalination
the process of removing salt from seawater
exceptionally
unusually
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