Before Taew goes to work in the morning, she takes a shower as part of her morning routine. But there's a small problem.
"I have to beg and pray to all of the holy spirits for the water to run through my tap," the 38-year-old Pattaya resident said.
It may sound a touch dramatic, but for Taew there are no guarantees that water will flow from her faucets in the morning — or at any time of the day. It is a problem that she, and many other households in Pattaya, have been forced to deal with for years.
"We don't have enough water to use," she said. "It either runs really slow, or simply doesn't run at all during the times we need it."
The only solution for Taew is to call in one of the many private water companies which are thriving on the back of the town's supply issues. The service does not come cheap.
"Each time I call the water truck to deliver to my home, I have to pay 250 baht," Taew said, adding that one delivery will keep her going for only three days. "The water is not clean, but it is better than having no water to use."
APPLYING PRESSURE
Water shortages have been plaguing Pattaya for more than a decade, as population growth has outpaced infrastructure development.
Ratana Ongsombatt, a key member of local environmental network Conservation Group of Ao Naklua, told Spectrum many of her friends and family complain regularly about not having proper access to mains water. Some, she said, have opted to move away from the area rather than bear the cost of having water trucked in.
"I have heard rumours that many big hotels use different water pipes from local residents," she said.
"They have never lived a day without water, while local residents hardly know what it feels like to have water running through their pipes."
Pattaya City deputy mayor Ronakit Ekasingh said this statement was untrue, and that everyone in Pattaya shared the same water supply network.
"No one has any special privileges over others in this town," he said.
"I have to admit, however, that people who live at the end of the pipeline, especially those who live along Beach Road, might find it hard to get water."
Pattaya water supply issues are a common source of complaint on the Thaivisa.com website, one of the largest online communities for expatriates in Thailand.
The complaints usually state that water is unavailable for two to three days at a time, or sometimes up to a week, without any explanation from authorities.
Those who live close to Sukhumvit Road or the Pattaya Provincial Water Authority (PWA) office appear to suffer less problems than those living closer to the beach area.
Since many Pattaya are renters, they are not allowed to install water tanks.
Mr Ronakit said the town had changed so quickly that no one was prepared for it. New houses, condominiums and hotels have sprung up all over the area in recent years, while even the most basic infrastructure remains largely unchanged.
"The water pipes we are using now are old and fragile," Mr Ronakit said.
The reason some people do not get water in their homes, he added, is because the PWA is forced to release water at a low pressure.
"If the PWA releases water to the whole town at regular pressure, all of the town's pipes will burst."
Pooh, 38, was born and raised in Pattaya. She went to work in Bangkok for a while, but decided to return home to run a business. She purchased a shophouse on Beach Road, running a restaurant on the ground floor and living in the upper three storeys.
RESCUE PACKAGE: A PWA water truck delivers free water for people in Pattaya after they complained of being left for a week without access to the mains.
Business was going well. But it didn’t take long for her to realise why the property had been sold to her at such a low price.
“I had a beautiful residence with no water to use,” Pooh said.
She began to notice the problem when her water tank kept running dry and could not be refilled. She reported the problem to the PWA, which promised to look into the problem.
Meanwhile, Pooh called in a private company to deliver water for her daily use. Her frustration grew when she discovered that her pump had burned out from running automatically with no water feeding through the pipe.
After lodging several complaints with the PWA, and forking out thousands of baht for water to be delivered, Pooh took the issue directly to Pattaya City Hall. She was later told that the underground water pipe leading to her area was broken, and that she would have to continue paying for water to be delivered until the pipe was fixed.
"One time I had a relative come to visit,” Pooh recalled. “I had no water for them to use, not even enough to flush the toilet. They had to drive or walk to the shopping mall nearby just to use the bathroom.”
Pooh said she was forced to carry one bucket of water at a time from downstairs to an upstairs bathroom for her parents and herself to use.
“I waited and waited until I couldn’t take it any longer," she said.
"I was being forced to pay 3,000-5,000 baht each month just for water, so I eventually sold my house and moved to a different area — this time to one with a reliable water supply.”
Spectrum contacted two water companies that provide 24/7 delivery services in Pattaya. They said their water comes from groundwater sources in Bang Lamung district. The water is not treated, but is clean enough for normal household use, if not entirely fit for human consumption.
The cost for 2,000 litres is usually around 200 baht.
There are many companies that provide raw water, but quality is mixed. “[Some companies] use ground water from areas where the quality is quite poor,” said the manager of one company, who identified himself only as “Serm”.
“They mix the [chemical compound] alum into the water to make it look crystal clear, but the water is not even good enough to use for watering the garden.”
WATERING HOLE: A broken underground pipe in Pattaya causes minor roadside flooding.
TRADING BLAME
The water supply for nearly all of the country’s eastern region is controlled by East Water, a publicly listed company. Locals in Pattaya told Spectrum they believe the company is responsible for the area’s crippling water shortages.
But Wanchai Lawattanatrakul, chief executive officer of Eastern Water Resources Development and Management Public Company Limited, or East Water, told Spectrum this belief was misguided.
He explained the current system for water management in the East has been in place since a cabinet resolution formed East Water in 1992.
Before that, the PWA and Royal Irrigation Department (RID) were in charge of supplying all water in the eastern region and meeting the heavy demand for raw water from Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate in Rayong and Laem Chabang Port in Chon Buri.
The government at that time invested money to build a major pipeline sending raw water from Bang Pakong river in Chachoengsao to these two areas. It then let the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT) take care of the water management at Map Ta Phut, while the Department of Public Works and Town and Country Planning took care of Laem Chabang.
Then prime minister Anand Panyarachun believed having four bodies taking care of the water system was too complicated. He assigned the RID to take charge of water management and established East Water to supply raw water to the region’s industrial estates and the PWA.
East Water was, at the time, 100% owned by the PWA, meaning the provincial body was paying itself for the privilege of receiving its own water. In 1997, East Water was listed as a public company limited, although today the PWA still holds a 40% stake in the company, while the IEAT also holds a 4% share.
“We manage the water system in Chachoengsao, Chon Buri and Rayong provinces, but we only sell raw water to factories or the PWA, which handles the treatment and processing as well as the distribution,” Mr Wanchai said.
“We are not dealing directly with local residents anywhere in the eastern region.”
East Water does have a wholly owned subsidiary, Universal Utilities, which manages water for household use. The company is currently delivering water directly to homes in Chachoengsao and Rayong, but does not have any concession to manage Chon Buri, Pattaya or Laem Chabang.
Mr Wanchai said East Water only delivers raw water to treatment plants run by the PWA in Pattaya. At that point, the company’s responsibility ends, and it is up to the PWA to take care of the infrastructure which processes the raw water and delivers it to people’s homes.
“If there is any problem in Pattaya area, the PWA would be the unit to make a complaint to,” Mr Wanchai said, dismissing locals’ claims that East Water was behind the water shortages.
CRACKS IN THE SYSTEM: A PWA officer in Pattaya fixes a broken water pipe.
GOING AGAINST THE FLOW
Water issues in Pattaya fall under the responsibility of the local PWA, but the agency is seemingly powerless to deal with some of the issues of corruption surrounding the supply of the utility. Mostly, when they need help, residents need to complain directly to Pattaya City Hall or a district office nearby.
Sakchai Tanghoh is the district chief of Bang Lamung. He said problems from Pattaya — which falls within, but is not part of, the district — have begun creeping into his jurisdiction. Bang Lamung has become a new home for large hotels, condominiums and housing project amid a scarcity of suitable land in Pattaya.
Even though Mr Sakchai doesn’t oversee Pattaya, the two two areas share the same PWA office.
“I spoke to the manager of the Pattaya PWA, and he seemed aware of the problems and was working to address them,” Mr Sakchai said.
“In our area, water shortages are rare. But the PWA is working to cope with the rapid expansion of the town, including plans for a new pipe network.”
Aside from infrastructure problems hampering water supply, there is another major problem facing residents in the area: corruption and extortion by property developers.
Mr Sakchai pointed to one condominium complex in Central Pattaya as an example. The owner of the project renovated an existing building and added more floors. The condo's central location and low price meant the units were snapped up quickly.
But when people began moving in, they realised they would be paying a high price for the most important utility: water.
The residents demanded an explanation from the owner as to why they had to purchase water from a tank attached to the complex instead of directly from the PWA. When they didn't receive an answer, the residents took their complaints to the PWA.
Where it flows: A map shows the pipeline operated by East Water, which brings water from Chachoengsao to Pattaya.
They were told that the owner of the land had not allowed the PWA to install pipes from the main road to the condo block. Angered and feeling cheated, the residents went to file a complaint to Mr Sakchai.
“I helped the villagers fight the case, and eventually we were successful,” Mr Sakchai said. “The PWA has now installed the water pipe from the main road into the condominium complex.”
But this was not an isolated case. Many housing developments turn a profit not only from selling properties, but from locking tenants into buying water from tanks rather than hooking them up to the mains.
In once recent case, residents began moving into a housing development in north Pattaya, only to find they had no access to the PWA water supply. Since they had taken out a mortgage plan from the developer, they did not hold the title deeds to their property.
Without the deeds, the owners have no right to ask the PWA for a water meter. The result was that residents were living for years without public water to use, having to buy it directly from the housing development at a grossly inflated price.
Sutad Nutchpan, the manager of the Pattaya PWA, said that even though people who don’t have house registration documents cannot apply to have a meter installed, the PWA can help solve the problem by issuing a temporary meter.
They can then apply for a permanent meter once their names are listed as the owner of the house.
“We received these cases from the district office's Dumrongtham complaint centre," Mr Sakchai said.
"I am sure there are lot more cases out there. I encourage local people to speak up if there is any problem in their area.
"I also have to blame my land office team who allowed this to happen. We have to take care of our people, not take advantage of them."
BURSTING AT THE SEAMS
LAYING GROUNDWORK: A company engaged by the PWA works to replace ageing pipes.
After talking to locals and authorities, all roads seemed to lead back to the Pattaya PWA. Spectrum contacted Sutad Nutchpan, the manager of the PWA, to explain the town's problems.
He said there should be no more water supply problems, as he had recently given the network a thorough inspection. He said the water pressure at the end of the pipeline was still strong enough to supply water to the ground floor of a regular house, although home owners' testimony would seem to contradict this.
Mr Sutad said the PWA in Pattaya had been running deliberately low water pressures to avoid rupturing the ageing pipelines, but this policy has now changed.
“We have now been allocated a budget to replace the old pipes with new ones,” he said. Mr Sutad has ordered his team to run the water at standard pressure, and to “let the pipes burst, so we know where the weak parts are that need replacing”.
He said the PWA was supplying water 24/7 and was working around the clock to replace broken pipes ever since he started his "let it burst" strategy this year. He said Pattaya's water problems have stemmed from the PWA's failure to release the water at a high enough pressure to reach the end of the pipes.
This, he insisted, was no longer the case. Water was now being released at a pressure reading of "60 metres", and while that will usually drop to a pressure reading of "eight metres" by the end of the pipe network, it is enough to ensure everyone has water to use at home.
Pattaya water is sourced from five different natural reservoirs, while the PWA also has the contract to buy raw water from East Water in case water from the reservoirs is not enough to meet demand.
Mr Wanchai from East Water explained that Chon Buri usually suffers more shortages than neighbouring Rayong province since the water reservoir in the area is small and unable to feed the whole town at the same time.
He said East Water has invested money in building pipelines to connect water reservoirs in Rayong to Chon Buri.
East Water has invested more than 10 billion baht since 1992 to build the pipe system that is still in use today.
Mr Sutad also has a contract with the PWA in Sattahip district and plans to install water pumps at lakes and rivers in Rayong to get ready for the looming drought season, which is predicted to be particularly severe.
“Normally, at this time of every year, the water level in local reservoirs should be almost full," he said.
"But it doesn’t even reach half of it this year. If we are in a water crisis, we will have to reduce the water pressure again so that we can have enough water to use throughout the drought season.” n