CHIANG MAI, THAILAND ─ A relentless heatwave and a long drought influenced by El Niño weather patterns have escalated a water dispute in a community in Thailand’s north, with rice and tangerine farmers contesting dwindling local water supplies. “Pai, look at the check dam now! Someone has removed the sandbags, and the water isn’t diverting into your field,” Somsak Kueankaew, a farmer, shouted to his friend. Somsak and about 170 rice farmers in Chiang Mai’s northern Mae Sao sub-district have been forced to take turns guarding the Mae Hang and Mae Sao creeks, the major sources of water that supply nearly 2,310 hectares of rice fields and tangerine orchards in their community. Their actions were prompted by the excessive use of water from the creeks as rice and tangerines are both thirsty crops requiring intensive irrigation, especially in the summer. “We’ve experienced a scorching heatwave that caused a water shortage, leading to more water thieves,” said Somsak, who is also the secretary of a local farmer group formed to manage water usage in Mae Sao sub-district. What they guard against is the removal of sandbags used to channel water from the creeks to their rice fields, with the water flowing on elsewhere. Sometimes they find rocks placed in the waterway to direct water to specific agricultural areas. “Ghost pipes”, or unauthorized water pipes used to divert water, have also appeared along the upstream creeks, with no one claiming ownership. More than 17 ghost pipes were discovered this year – the highest number ever reported. This increasing contest for water has broken an earlier deal reached between the rice and tangerine farmers, who agreed in 2005 on the size of the pipes used for water diversion and the amount of water sharing ─ with 70% of the water from Mae Hang Creek going to rice farms and 30% to tangerine orchards. “In normal circumstances, the water available from the creeks was sufficient to supply all the farms in Mae Sao,” said Surachart Malasri from the Department of Irrigation. “But the water sources have become insufficient during the dry season the water cannot be stored for later use. Many farmers rent land for cultivation, and they are not allowed by the landholders to dig ponds to store water. They must depend on water flowing from the creeks.” Thailand and the whole of Southeast Asia have experienced very high temperatures this summer ─ starting from March to May when the weather was hotter and drier than in other months. Condition have been exacerbated by the El Nino phenomenon, which has caused a longer than usual dry period. Some scientific research also links the intense heatwaves and long drought to climate change. This year, the Thai government expects the average rainfall across the country to be 24% lower than normal, an improvement from last year when the rainfall was 40% lower. Thai climatologist Seree Supratid, the director of the Center for Climate Change and Disasters at Rangsit University, recently warned that Thailand could see temperatures hit 50 degrees Celsius in the next 60 years if the Paris Agreement is not achieved. The number of days when the temperature surpasses 40 degrees Celsius is also expected to rise from nine to 75 each year. In Mae Sao, the impact of climate-related extreme weather has translated into an intense water dispute between rice and tangerine farmers. Thirty years ago, tangerine orchards started to spread in Mae Sao and replaced lychee orchards. Driven by the rising price of tangerines, newcomers flooded into the area to cultivate tangerine trees on a commercial scale. Some orchards encroached on the Doi Pha Hom Pok National Park, a hilly, lush forest where the Mae Sao and Mae Hang creeks originate. Local authorities soon discovered plastic pipes of various sizes installed upstream to extract water to feed the tangerine orchards. Illegal check dams were also found along the creeks, a practice involving placing sandbags or rocks to hold water that is diverted to farms. This resulted in rice farmers protesting to the owners of the tangerine orchards, and climbing up the hill to destroy the pipes. They also filed complaints against the tangerine farms with local authorities and the National Human Rights Commission in 2005 ─ leading to an agreement on water sharing between the two farming groups. This map illustrates the cultivation areas of rice (dark green) and tangerines (orange) in Mae Sao sub-district, Chiang Mai province, Thailand. Some tangerine orchard areas overlap with Doi Pha Hom Pok National Park (light green). GRAPHIC: Visarut Sankham Local authorities also launched lawsuits against 117 owners of tangerine orchards who installed pipes upstream in the creeks.