"Danger to tourists" as filthy water continues to spew into Pattaya sea

[webfact]

"Danger to tourists" as filthy water continues to spew into Pattaya sea

 

Picture: Sophon Cable

 

PATTAYA: -- Sophon Cable TV reported on their Facebook page that filthy sewage infested water continued to spew into the sea near Walking Street.

 

Despite earlier reports that bacteria levels were far too high nothing has been done.

 

The sea represents a danger to tourists, they said.

 

Authorities were quoted as saying that heavy rains were making it impossible for a treatment plant to cope with the volume of filthy water.

 

Picture: Sophon Cable

 

Some 19 million baht has been allocated to address the problem but City hall have yet to make inroads into the problem.

 

Sophon showed pictures of the trash and dirty water on a wide swathe of the beach yesterday.

 

Posters on their site said it was just more of the same - a problem that has existed for a long time and is not being properly addressed.

 

Source: Sophon Cable

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2017-10-05

[marginline]

It's such a disgrace and a real shame Pattaya City hall cannot sort the water quality out. Twiddling the proverbial knobs by trying to fix what isn't broken (i.e. the so called recent improvements to Jomtien and Dongtan Beaches) and talking-up what Pattaya might become (i.e. a Sports Hub, a Boating Hub, etc.,) IMHO fools no one and so I feel sad that apathy reigns supreme here, where the water quality is a blight and a continuing embarrassment.

[klauskunkel]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Some 19 million baht has been allocated to address the problem

19 Mio. Wow. 

next week: 19 Mio gone, problem remains un-addressed

[peperobi]

Welcome to Pattaya Thailand FIRST CLASS DESTINATION! (The Thai Miami).

[alfalfa19]

On my first trip to Thailand, 17 years ago, I visited Pattaya.  I like to swim, and saw the beach, and thought :  how nice , a tropical beach, and nice warm water to swim in.   I swam out about 30 yards, and was suddenly in the middle of a BIG area of solid human sewage.  I doubt things have gotten any better since 2000. 

[lonewolf99]

These are perfect examples of the expression "What is wrong with this picture"? 

[Destiny1990]

How would that Russian lady feel who got arrested for feeding some bread crumbs to the fish in the ocean after reading that they dumping sewage water directly in the ocean? 

[KIWIBATCH]

....World Class Family Resort.......

Edited October 5, 2017 by KIWIBATCH

[Cadbury]

3 hours ago, marginline said:

It's such a disgrace and a real shame Pattaya City hall cannot sort the water quality out. Twiddling the proverbial knobs by trying to fix what isn't broken (i.e. the so called recent improvements to Jomtien and Dongtan Beaches) and talking-up what Pattaya might become (i.e. a Sports Hub, a Boating Hub, etc.,) IMHO fools no one and so I feel sad that apathy reigns supreme here, where the water quality is a blight and a continuing embarrassment.

It's not the fault of the Pattaya City Council. The story clearly points out that it was the fault of the rain. In Thailand any problem is always the fault of something or someone else. And PM Prayut is a master of passing the buck so maybe the Council has been learning from him.

 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

19 million baht has been allocated to address the problem

I suspect the 19 million has long disappeared into various pockets.

The word "maintenance" is not in the Thai language.

Edited October 5, 2017 by Cadbury

[mok199]

its time for a 45 bhat dollar..mabey some quality people will return...cause this city is lost in its own ass..

[masuk]

Sewerage and stormwater are meant to be two totally different systems.  The sewer system is normally sealed and kept separate from grey water, stormwater.

Seems something has been overlooked by the town planners/engineers.

The river Thames flowing through London was in a similar state to Pattaya in the 19th century, and a huge and very efficient sewerage system was built.  

I wouldn't encourage anyone to venture near the sea in Pattaya's present run-down state.

[Lupatria]

Come to Pattaya, be happy as a pig in poo!

[jaywalker]

1 hour ago, Cadbury said:

It's not the fault of the Pattaya City Council. The story clearly points out that it was the fault of the rain. In Thailand any problem is always the fault of something or someone else. And PM Prayut is a master of passing the buck so maybe the Council has been learning from him.

 

I suspect the 19 million has long disappeared into various pockets.

The word "maintenance" is not in the Thai language.

The 'M' in Thailand stands for Maintenance.

 

Same like the 'J' that stands for civil "servants" doing their jobs.

 

 

[farcanell]

1 hour ago, masuk said:

Seems something has been overlooked by the town planners/engineers.

Lol.... the "overlooked" "something" may have been education ?

[Asiantravel]

Pattaya City is concentrating on one thing at the moment and that is making the area around Bali Hai look  good for the Navy review  next month. But at an estimated cost of 800 million baht I couldn't be optimistic there would be much money left over for other projects such as solving the growing crisis regarding rubbish disposal on Koh Larn Island .

And it doesn't matter that the rest of the place is falling apart- Dongtan beach walkway has literally collapsed in two places but no one does a thing about it.

 

[mark01]

 No-one really gives a #@£& about Pattaya.

Corruption is as bad (if not worse) than it was pre-coup.

And the major concern is how to get hold of those Chinese tour group dollars.

[Jonmarleesco]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

The sea represents a danger to tourists

When hasn't it? Pattaya has never been able to claim a clean environment as a selling point.

[fforest1]

Pattaya the HUB of swimming with turds....

[Anagami]

"Some 19 million baht has been allocated to address the problem but City hall have yet to make inroads into the problem."

 

Why hurry at all? Things are great as they are! *vomit*

 

I wonder how much the rent is right at the apartments behind the sewage..... Must be quite something living there. Not that the rest of us live that far.

[NanLaew]

3 hours ago, klauskunkel said:

19 Mio. Wow. 

next week: 19 Mio gone, problem remains un-addressed

19,000,000 baht?

 

That's (almost) four, imported luxury automobiles.

 

I wonder who (almost) got them?

[ebonykap]

19 million baht to fix massive decades old sewerage, hygiene problems etc.

 

800 million baht for some cosmetic work for a navy bash.

 

What's wrong with this picture?

[Curmudgeon1]

6 hours ago, marginline said:

It's such a disgrace and a real shame Pattaya City hall cannot sort the water quality out. Twiddling the proverbial knobs by trying to fix what isn't broken (i.e. the so called recent improvements to Jomtien and Dongtan Beaches) and talking-up what Pattaya might become (i.e. a Sports Hub, a Boating Hub, etc.,) IMHO fools no one and so I feel sad that apathy reigns supreme here, where the water quality is a blight and a continuing embarrassment.

Agreed, but the beaches in jomtein/Dongtan need/ needed the upgrade...

They're seperate issues. Monies for water treatment should come from tap water sales. 

Returnable fees to glasd and plastic bottles another logical source to deal with polluting. Imo

[Searat7]

Wonder what Prayut would have said if Trump asked him about this problem when they met on Monday.

[portroyal]

When you come to Pattaya it’s because you have dirty dreams.

Well you get also dirty beach and dirty water

Everything ok and logical

[Gold Star]

The inability for the drainage and utility systems to properly function here during a storm should not be a surprise.  Pattaya expanded quickly in a third world environment. It's inefficient random shape was determined not by by ideal function or design. It was largely from the locations of someone's property, and the dirt roads that were running through the forests at the time, that became major thoroughfares.

 

Land was carved up from the natural water-absorbing jungle and sold off piece by piece for development, levelled, and many kms of water shedding roads were paved, creating huge downstream drainage issues.  There was little or no thought for future population growth, or how to provide proper services, roads, or infrastructure. The city expanded wildly east and up the hills, without any additional consideration for intermediate storm runoff catch ponds which slowly release the water after a storm.

 

The result of years of shoddy patching, poor workmanship, and attempts at quick fixes on a crippled layout of a city also play a role.  If you want an idea of what the drainage and water systems look like hidden below the ground, just look up at the wiring. 

 

Although I do not know or have a schematic of the city's present water and drainage system layout, I can take a guess at what is happening.  There are two separate undersized drain systems, storm and sewage. On a good day, sewage water flows underground downhill in separate pipes to the pump house at the beach, and normally gets pumped back uphill to a treatment plant before being released back into the sea.

Storm water runoff flows underground directly into the sea.  During a big storm, too much rainwater is getting into the sewage water system, which you see backing up out of your toilets, floor drains, and and it also flows out freely onto the street surfaces.  The undersized stormwater drainage system also gets overloaded, and the excess flows out onto the streets, even bubbling up out of the storm drains in the Arab area of Second road by Walking Street. That mixture you walk through 20 cms deep in your flip flops is toxic.

 

What you see in the photo is when the septic pump system in the Beer Garden pump house cannot handle all the excess volume of rainwater in the septic lines to pump it all back uphill in a third line under the streets to the plant, and it overflows directly into the beach out the big pipes.

The treatment plant has also reported they can't handle all the excess septic volume it receives when it rains.

 

Flooding of the streets is one major problem of the ineffective storm drainage. Sewage overflowing due to rainwater is another problem. 

 

Keeping sewage from overflowing comes down to two solutions.  Take less costly measures to keep the sudden rush of stormwater out of the septic system, or spend billions ripping up the streets and installing a massively up sized comprehensive drainage system that we all are used to having in our own countries.

 

 

 

[watcharacters]

11 minutes ago, Gold Star said:

The inability for the drainage and utility systems to properly function here during a storm should not be a surprise.  Pattaya expanded quickly in a third world environment. It's inefficient random shape was determined not by by ideal function or design. It was largely from the locations of someone's property, and the dirt roads that were running through the forests at the time, that became major thoroughfares.

 

Land was carved up from the natural water-absorbing jungle and sold off piece by piece for development, levelled, and many kms of water shedding roads were paved, creating huge downstream drainage issues.  There was little or no thought for future population growth, or how to provide proper services, roads, or infrastructure. The city expanded wildly east and up the hills, without any additional consideration for intermediate storm runoff catch ponds which slowly release the water after a storm.

 

The result of years of shoddy patching, poor workmanship, and attempts at quick fixes on a crippled layout of a city also play a role.  If you want an idea of what the drainage and water systems look like hidden below the ground, just look up at the wiring. 

 

Although I do not know or have a schematic of the city's present water and drainage system layout, I can take a guess at what is happening.  There are two separate undersized drain systems, storm and sewage. On a good day, sewage water flows underground downhill in separate pipes to the pump house at the beach, and normally gets pumped back uphill to a treatment plant before being released back into the sea.

Storm water runoff flows underground directly into the sea.  During a big storm, too much rainwater is getting into the sewage water system, which you see backing up out of your toilets, floor drains, and and it also flows out freely onto the street surfaces.  The undersized stormwater drainage system also gets overloaded, and the excess flows out onto the streets, even bubbling up out of the storm drains in the Arab area of Second road by Walking Street. That mixture you walk through 20 cms deep in your flip flops is toxic.

 

What you see in the photo is when the septic pump system in the Beer Garden pump house cannot handle all the excess volume of rainwater in the septic lines to pump it all back uphill in a third line under the streets to the plant, and it overflows directly into the beach out the big pipes.

The treatment plant has also reported they can't handle all the excess septic volume it receives when it rains.

 

Flooding of the streets is one major problem of the ineffective storm drainage. Sewage overflowing due to rainwater is another problem. 

 

Keeping sewage from overflowing comes down to two solutions.  Take less costly measures to keep the sudden rush of stormwater out of the septic system, or spend billions ripping up the streets and installing a massively up sized comprehensive drainage system that we all are used to having in our own countries.

 

 

 

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess Thailand will opt for your  "spend billions ripping up the streets and installing a massively up sized comprehensive drainage system that we all are used to having in our own countries."

 

Just a hunch...

[Asiantravel]

2 hours ago, watcharacters said:

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess Thailand will opt for your  "spend billions ripping up the streets and installing a massively up sized comprehensive drainage system that we all are used to having in our own countries."

 

Just a hunch...

 

" Just a hunch... "

 

or is it because on September 22, 2017 Chonburi Governor warned that could be the only solution

 

https://news.lovepattayathailand.com/local/rip-drainage-pipes-out-again-governor/

[wavemanwww]

6 hours ago, Cadbury said:

It's not the fault of the Pattaya City Council. The story clearly points out that it was the fault of the rain. In Thailand any problem is always the fault of something or someone else. And PM Prayut is a master of passing the buck so maybe the Council has been learning from him.

 

I suspect the 19 million has long disappeared into various pockets.

The word "maintenance" is not in the Thai language.

"It's not the fault of the Pattaya City Council. The story clearly points out that it was the fault of the rain" Blame everybody and anything else! By the way the current PM was leader well and truly after this shit hole mess. Excuse the pun.I grew up in Sydney Australia rain or no rain, we started to fix sewerage problems back in the 80's ,10 years later the harbour and ocean beaches are pristine. When will you start?

[Cadbury]

41 minutes ago, wavemanwww said:

"It's not the fault of the Pattaya City Council. The story clearly points out that it was the fault of the rain" Blame everybody and anything else! By the way the current PM was leader well and truly after this shit hole mess. Excuse the pun.I grew up in Sydney Australia rain or no rain, we started to fix sewerage problems back in the 80's ,10 years later the harbour and ocean beaches are pristine. When will you start?

You have obviously missed the facetious messages in my comments. Grow a sense of humour if that's possible. I know it can be difficult for some know-all Sydney folk. You saved the beaches of Sydney. Well done!

[Thechook]

Thai beaches are disgusting