Authorities in Bangkok, Phnom Penh, Yangon and Vientiane have once again issued urgent warnings and bans to try to curb the problem.
In Thailand, where 20,000 police officers have been mobilized, blood-alcohol tests will be carried out at checkpoints. Last Songkran, more than 800 people were killed on the roads, 70 percent due to drunk-driving.
Water-throwing is prohibited after 6pm and parents have been warned they face up to three months in jail if their offspring use the festivities as an excuse to sexually harass women. The young women themselves have been asked not to wear "provocative" clothing like miniskirts.
In Myanmar, the official press noted: "It is important that people take part in the festival in line with Myanmar tradition and avoid behaviors and wearing clothes that are foreign to our culture."
In Yangon, hundred of makeshift wooden structures have been thrown up as platforms for water-throwing, especially around the capital's Inya Lake -- although revelries are banned near Aung San Suu Kyi's home.
In Cambodia, where the new year is rung in at precisely 5:36pm on Tuesday, newspapers have published official directives against "theft and other crimes, especially gambling" and security forces have been warned they will "will have to work very hard" according to a city official quoted by Cambodge Soir.
In Laos, the authorities noted that last year, "Pimai saw hundreds of people driving drunk or involved in pick-up wars which resulted in loss of life" and encouraged citizens to meet on the banks of the Mekong and leave their cars at home.
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