The government will spend more on irrigation stations in Vientiane if the water level in the Mekong continues to fall, the Director General of the Vientiane Agriculture and Forestry Department (VAFD), Mr Latsanivong Amarathithada, reported at a government meeting yesterday.
The level of the river is still dropping but the decrease has slowed this month. The average rate of fall is now about one centimetre per day.
“In the present conditions, we don't need more money because pumps on boats can still function adequately,” Mr Latsanivong said.
Electricite du Laos, Vientiane's water supplier Nampapa Nakhoneluang and the Vientiane Agriculture and Forestry Department each reported on the effects of the low water levels.
If water levels decrease by five or six centimetres per day, the government will buy pipes to bring water from the boats to the irrigation stations as well as electric cables for the pumps.
According to the VAFD, the Mekong was dropping very quickly in early February, at a rate of about 10 centimetres per day.
Towards the end of February, the rate fell from 10 to 5 centimetres per day, when the VAFD built boats and installed pumps on them in the middle of the river.
Mr Latsanivong said Vientiane has 31 irrigation projects which were all suffering from water shortages.
“We have now installed pumps on boats to feed 11 irrigation stations, which supply water to rice growers in Vientiane,” he said.
The government has spent about 1.4 billion kip on installing the pumps on boats and making channels to bring water to the stations.
Irrigation projects on other rivers such as the Nam Ngum are not affected because they have enough water. Only the irrigation systems on the Mekong have a problem with low water levels.
The Vientiane water supplier, Nampapa Nakhoneluang, will start pumping water on boats in two days' time.
“We currently have a problem at the Kaoliew water tank because most of this stretch of the river has become a sandbank over the last month,” company Director Daophet Boupha said.
The company has three water tanks in Vientiane, at Kaoliew, Chinaimo and Dongmakkhai, and they can usually produce about 160,000 cubic metres of water per day.
“At present, we can only produce about 130,000 cubic metres of water daily because the Kaoliew water tank is not operational throughout the day,” Mr Daophet said.
However, after boats have pumped water from the middle of the river, the tank should be able to provide water all day long.
Some residents of Sithan Neua village in Sikhottabong district, Vientiane, told the Vientiane Times their water supply was intermittent yesterday morning, with no water at all on the second floor of their house, which meant they were unable to use the shower.
The meeting was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Asang Laoly.
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*Slow boat owners lose millions as Mekong drops*
Vientiane Times, 4 Mar 2010
Unseasonably low levels of water in the Mekong River are having serious consequences for river transport in the north of Laos.
Slow tourist and cargo boats, which run between Luang Prabang and Bokeo provinces, stopped operating on February 19 because of shallow water, the first time the Mekong has fallen this low for several decades. This has put many boat owners out of business.
The river route through Laos is favoured by foreign tourists, who cross into Bokeo province from Chiang Rai province, Thailand. From here they travel downriver to Luang Prabang via Pakbaeng district in Oudomxay province.
At present, there are about 60 boats in Luang Prabang that transport tourists on this route, bringing visitors to one of the top destinations in Laos. Some 100 boats in Oudomxay and Bokeo provinces also carry tourists on this route.
At least 300 foreign tourists travel by boat up and down the Mekong between Luang Prabang and Bokeo each day. Luang Prabang Boat Association President, Mr Nikone Somphantavong, said yesterday boat owners and crew members had lost at least 195 million kip since the Mekong dropped to a critical level in the middle of last month.
“We could make at least 15 million kip a day if we could continue to operate,” he told Vientiane Times.
Mr Nikone said slow boat owners now found it difficult to make a living, adding that many of them were now competing with each other to offer trips over shorter distances, mainly from Luang Prabang to Pakbaeng.
The Mekong normally starts to rise after Lao New Year in April with the onset of the rainy season.
Mr Nikone said this was the first time he could remember slow boats having to suspend their services since the boat association was established 30 years ago, adding that the low water level had caught boat owners unawares.
The association had reported the problems they faced to the provincial authorities, in the hope they could provide some form of assistance.
“We don't know what the provincial authorities can do to help, but they are discussing the matter,” he said.
Although slow boats were no longer running between Bokeo and Luang Prabang, tourism in Luang Prabang was still thriving.
Mr Nikone said only a few tourists had cancelled their visit because of transport problems because they had the alternative of using speedboats, which can carry 6 to 8 passengers. Tourists also travel to Luang Prabang by road and air routes.
“The people who cancelled their trip to Luang Prabang were the ones who really wanted to come here by slow boat,” he said.
