Clean Water for Better Health in Rural Thailand

When you think of Thailand, most people picture lush jungle foliage and elephants running through the rivers with monkeys swinging from the trees.  This description of Thailand can be seen in rainy season when the rivers are flowing high and the trees are all green.  However, many people do not realize there is a dry season in northern Thailand when the rivers are only trickling and much of the jungle turns brown.  This is when strategic water systems are needed most in the northern villages of Thailand.

Our team continues to assess the needs of many villages and to make plans to meet the greatest water needs.  Several villages have old water systems that do not meet the needs of the expanding communities and need to have increased capacity to provide water, especially during the dry season running from October through April.

Other villages do not have any central water systems and rely on water deliveries to fill individual storage tanks.  As resources are available, we will be installing clean water systems to meet the demands of the whole village.

Due to the Covid19 restrictions, our team was only able to visit a few villages in the last several months to assess the water needs and bring some much needed food and cooking supplies.  We visit villages located north of Mae Hang Son, starting with Baan Mai Sang Naam where we were able to provide food packs for 50 families.  This village had a dozen 5000 liter plastic storage containers, however the source of water had dried up and they needed to connect to a spring another 8 kilometers away.

We then went north to Baan Saw Baat where delivered another 25 food packs and assessed the water needs at the village.  The village leader was reqesting a new water system as the current one was in need of numerous repairs and did not meet the needs of the village when it was functioning.

In the village of Baan Bawkrai we examined several old concrete water tanks that need replacement and re-piping.  We then continued north passed Baan WatNaLuang to the remote village of Baan Ehla, where we distributed 30 more food packs to families and discussed water system locations and details with the village leaders.