Water divide

Buachan puts a little water in a medium size bowl. She washes up after her family meal. The water she uses was carried about 500 metres to her house in Phayao, 691 kilometres north of Bangkok.

Later, she and her husband inspect the earthen dikes of their 11 rai ricefield to make sure the young plants are watered.

At the same time, they search for crabs-not for food but to protect the dikes and keep the rice plants healthy. Singkham, Buachan's husband, digs into the damp clay to patch up the dike, otherwise the water will seep towards the clumps of water-hungry weeds.

"When the rice is still in the growing stage, we keep it in about four to five inches of water. At other stages, the rice needs different levels of water. "We don't want to keep too much or too little water in our fields, as it will damage our crops. The water must be just right at each stage," said Singkham.

"Then we have to watch out for the rain. If we give them too much water, our crops will rot. On the other hand, if there's too little water or a drought, we have to pump water from the Ing River.

"But we cannot be too greedy, because everyone needs their share of the water as already decided in our weir group agreements," said Singkham.

According to the Royal Irrigation Department (RID), one rai of rice needs about 128 cubic metres of water a day for not over 120 days a year. Vegetables consume about 80 cubic metres of water.

A source from the Ministry of Agriculture says that water being used for cultivation has its own function in the ecosystem.

For instance, some will evaporate and permeate rather than going to the rice plants.

Later in the day, Buachan goes to tend her vegetable garden.

She draws water from a small canal nearby.

Carefully, she pours water on each plot. As for other water uses, it takes only a medium-sized jar of water to bath the whole family of six.

A family of five in Bangkok: Somsri's son and daughter flush the toilet early in the morning, take a bath, drink their juice or milk, brush their teeth, and go to school.

Somsri and her husband do the same and go to work. Their housemaid does the same and begins doing the dishes, cleaning the house, watering the plants and washing the clothes. During the day, each person flushes the toilet up to five times. Each time, about five litres of water goes down the drain.

Somsri's maid does not know how much water she uses each day. But she does know that she couldn't use so much water at home.

"There is no tap or running water like this in my village. We have to be very careful in using water there. But here, since there is plenty of water, I can use as much as I need. "My employer says she does not mind paying the water bills as long as I clean everything." Somsri's husband Sakchai plays golf on weekends.

He admires the greenery, and sighs at his wonderful life.

As he takes a shower at the clubhouse after enjoying several glasses of fruit juice, he reflects on how much water it must take to keep the golf course green.

But he has no idea that every rai uses about 64 cubic metres of water a day. The average size of Thailand's 145 golf courses is about 1,500 rai. Thus, the total water consumption by the country's golf courses is about 13.9 million cubic metres of water a day-or about 5,073.5 million cubic metres a year.

By comparison, the Srinakarin Dam holds 17,450 million cubic metres at full capacity. Sometimes Sakchai and his friends visit the local bathhouses or entertain clients at hotels. Each massage parlour or hotel uses up to 10,000 cubic metres a month. When Somsri goes shopping with her children, her prime concern is to fill up the larder for the week.

She does not realise that millions of cubic metres of water go into manufacturing the plethora of goods that line the shelves of her favourite supermarket.

Records at the East Water Company show that its 34 customers that are major manufacturers use up to 104 million cubic metres of water per year. This averages at about 3.05 million cubic meters a year per factory. What's more, in addition to buying water from East Water, many factories pump underground water for their own use.