WMOD00461

• Title: Weather Modification Assessment - Kingdom of Thailand
• Date: 9/1/1986
• Country: Thailand
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

plants, built without the benefit of wastewater treatment facilities,
discharged large amounts of organic waste into the river resulting in
odor problems and fish kills. Seeding operations, in the opinion of
RRRDI personnel, resulted in increasing the discharge in the river
adequately enough to flush the concentrated pOllutants into the head
of the Gulf of Thailand. This type of operation is no longer necessary
on the Mae Klong River due to the construction of a major dam which
allows for a regulated streamflow, and to enforced reductions in
organic pOllutants as the result of implementation of basic
industrial pollution control activities in the agro-industrial area.

c. Cholera control

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In coordination with the Ministry of Health, the RRRDI conducted 5
operational days of seeding in 1973 to relieve a cholera outbreak in
the greater Bangkok region. The program focused on creating rainfall
to flush extensive areas of polluted streams, canals, and agri-
cultural drains. The intervention is generally believed to have been
effective, however, no public health data were collected during the
process of program planning or evaluation.

d. Domestic water supply

At the urging of the Ministry of Health, the RRRDI is participating in
a national program to improve the quality of domestic water in rural
households through increased use of rainwater. The Royal Thai
Government is presently promoting the construction, installation and
use of large covered water storage jars connected to roof rainwater
runoff systems which convey water to the storage jar. The program of
the RRRDI is seen to provide additional rain 'water to rural areas,
especially during droughts, to provide water to fill the jars. The
issue of potential water quality impacts from cloud seeding materials
is being studied through a program that is jointly implemented by the
RRRDI, the Meteorological Department and the Faculty of Public Health
at Mahidol University.

F. Monitoring and Evaluation of the Operational Seeding Program

There has been some collection of data from a number of the operational
seeding projects. The majority of the data appears to have been collected
recently (e.g., 1983-86) and are primarily composed of rain gauge values,
polaroid pictures of the radar scope, and local sounding data. There also
have been some samples of rainwater collected from i! few target areas.
Very little of this data is in an easily usable fonn (e.g., computerized
file), and the documentation appears sparse. Thus, in general, it appears
that a systematic and persistent effort to monitor the results of the
seeding operations has been lacking.

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A number of statistical evaluations have been conducted by faculty members
at the Kasetsart University and the Chulalongkorn University. These analy- i
ses have relied upon rain gauge, streamflow, and reservoir height data, and
have employed comparisons of means, double ratios, regression analysis, and

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