Authorities on Koh Samui are working to tackle a water shortage that has left taps running dry often for months, saying they do not want the Thai island to become a “disaster zone”.
A lack of rain and a resurgence in tourism has put intense pressure on supplies, prompting Sutham Samthong, a deputy mayor of Koh Samui, to urge the public to use supplies sparingly.
Samthong said that water was being brought in from other areas and private reservoirs, to be distributed to the public. With careful management he believed the island could navigate the next two months, after which rain was expected.
“We are not complacent. We are trying to solve the situation. We don’t want the provincial or upper [administration] to announce that Koh Samui is a disaster zone,” he said
Samui, famous for its white sandy beaches, scenic temples and luxury resorts, often struggles with a lack of fresh water during the dry season between March and May. It’s feared the El Niño weather phenomenon, which is associated with less rain, will result in more severe shortages this year.
Jutharath, who works in a massage parlour in the Bo Phut area, and who asked to give only one name, said that for the past three months, taps had worked only one or two days a week. “There was a time when it was gone, no water coming out at all for the whole week,” she said.
She was buying water from pick-up trucks, and had tanks and a small pool to save supplies.
“My neighbour, sometimes they even need to walk to the temple nearby, just to use the bathroom because there is no water,” said Jutharath, who said she had never experienced such bad shortages.
“I have a massage shop and rooms for rent. It’s really affected the business,” she said.
Ratchaporn Poolsawadee, the president of the Tourism Association of Koh Samui, said that rather than benefiting from a resurgence in tourist arrivals this year, businesses were instead having to use their profits to buy water. Not only was this costly, but supplies were also scarce, he added.
“When you run out of it you can’t just purchase it immediately, you need to plan ahead,” he added. “Everyone needs water at the same time.”
The number of rooms available on the island, including in hotels and villas, fell to just 5,000 during the pandemic. It has since recovered to 25,000, the same level as 2019, according to Ratchaporn.
As a result, problems such as water and waste management are also re-emerging.
Dr Kannapa Pongponrat Chieochan, an assistant professor at Thammasat University who has researched water-saving initiatives in Koh Samui, said the shortages of fresh water were rooted in poor planning.
Infrastructure had struggled to keep up with the size of the population on the island, which had grown substantially as people moved from across Thailand to work in its growing tourism industry, said Kannapa.
At the same time, the island had also witnessed a rapid development of resorts, hotels, golf courses and spas, she said.
“Samui has so many spas, with pool villas, and based on my research we found it’s the big corporates, big hotels, the 4 or 5 star resorts, the luxury ones, where there is a lot of water [consumption] – and the communities around that kind of property suffer from insufficient water because it’s all pumped into the resort,” she said.
While big businesses were able to pay for supplies from water trucks, smaller operators and local people were more vulnerable, said Kannapa.
Sutham said Samui needed 30,000 cubic metres of water a day. The majority, 24,000 cubic metres, would be brought to the island through an underwater pipeline from Surat Thani on the mainland, while reservoir supplies would be used for the remaining amount.
An additional 30,000 cubic metres would also be brought in on Monday to boost the reservoir supplies, according to the Provincial Waterworks Authority.
“I would like to ask people to save water, use it sparingly. If we help each other, we can go through this,” said Sutham.
