Saigon Sam Part 35: Thai Flood: Bangkok Tap Water Deteriorating?
Channel: samsaigon
Date: 2011-10-26

After repeating the measurement 4 times, I'm confident to say that my tap water conductivity today is about 10% higher than yesterday. This could indicate decreased filtration performance at the Metropolitan Waterworks Authority, or perhaps other pollusive events between that facility and my tap. According to The Nation article linked below, "Metropolitan Waterworks Authority governor Charoen Phassara... described the tapwater situation 'as worse than expected'". Suffice to say that I've never seen such a high reading the many weeks that I've been monitoring it.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Mega-waves-still-to-come-30168457.html

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Run-off-from-Pathum-Thani-being-drained-via-Prapa--30168137.html

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Runoff-from-Nava-Nakorn-rages-through-waterworks-c-30168196.html

UPDATE: 27/10/2011 Baseline conductivity is 257, up 9 points from yesterday, indicating continued water quality deterioration.

10/29/2011 289.

10/31/2011 300.

11/1/2011 320

11/2/2011 319. Maybe the water quality problem has peaked. We'll see.

11/3/2011 331. So much for hoping!

11/4/2011 337

11/5/2011 332. Going back down, let's hope it will last!

11/7/2011. 333.

11/8/2011. 320.

11/13/2011. 293.

11/15/2011. 283. Looks like a healthy downtrend. I'll update again when it returns to normal, or gets worse than the previous peak.

12/13/2011. 262. Looks like it's stuck here and isn't falling anymore, suggesting sustained damage to municipal water infrastructure. Bottled water is still in a state of disarray. Major 7-11 supplier Cooly Fresh no longer uses reverse osmosis, perhaps due to factory problems, so their conductivity has gone from about 20 in the past, to over 200 today. No other reverse osmosis water is available for sale, as far as I know.