Sources muddied by landslides in lower North
Residents of Bangkok and nearby provinces can expect shortages of tap water in the next week as water sources have been muddied by flood-triggered landslides in the lower North, the Metropolitan Waterworks Authority (MWA) warned yesterday. Weerachart Olarnpiriyakul, the MWA's deputy governor, said small particulate matter has surged to 2,000 nephelometric turbidity units (NTU).
An NTU is a measure of water turbidity taken by passing light through a sample and measuring the amount of the light that is deflected.
Mr Weerachart said such a high level of particles in water is unusual.
Such level of turbidity has not been recorded in the city's water sources for 40 years, he said.
He said the turbidity of water in the Chao Phraya river is usually 30-150 NTU, and generally deemed fit for tap water production.
As the mud and dirt from landslides in the North flowed into city water sources, the turbidity level shot up to 1,500 NTU on Thursday.
It reached levels of about 2,000 NTU on Friday.
