Water shortages in Thailand’s northeastern province of Surin have reached such a critical level that the provincial hospital has appealed for help from all agencies concerned, while many residents have resorted to buying water from private sources as tap water supply is not meeting the demand.

The Surin provincial hospital has exhausted all its 1.43 million litres of water reserves. The hospital uses between 800,000-1,000,000 litres of water each day, while the current daily supply amounts to just 80,000 litres or just 10 percent of that required.

The Suranaree task force and the provincial rural highway office have been sending water trucks to supply the hospital, but it remains far short of the demand.  Many residents have been providing drinking water to the hospital as well.

The Huey Saneng reservoir, in Tambon Chaniang in the Muang district, which used to be the main source of raw water for the waterworks authority, has almost dried up due to the prolonged drought, despite the onset of the wet season.

Meanwhile, the military and the provincial waterworks authority have installed about 12 kilometres of piping to extract water from three old quarries, which reportedly contain about three million cubic metres of water, for consumption in the provincial town.

Mr. Maitri Khetta, manager of the provincial waterworks authority, said that the water in the quarries will be sufficient to meet the demand for three months.