Is there an ecological way to consume water in Samui?

[roadrunner21]

heyho

 

Living in Samui since a while now and I'm really unhappy with the amount of plastic I have to throw away.

 

I'm generally only going around with my backpack and refuse to take plastic bags and straws whenever possible. This all works fine but I still have an issue with all the plastic bottles I have.

 

Does anyone have any solution for this? I thought about collecting the rainwater and drink it after filtering. But if someone has a better solution, I'm absolutely open for it!

[manarak]

get a water fountain and have water delivered to you in large re-usable bottles whcih the delivery service will take back at each new delivery.

[siamcrut]

At your home built your own proper water filtration. Outside on the road, just ask for a glass of water at the mom & pap store. They will give you one....

[roadrunner21]

1 minute ago, manarak said:

get a water fountain and have water delivered to you in large re-usable bottles they delivery service will take back at each new delivery.

This sounds great. Any companies you can recommend? I'm living in the northern part of the island in case it matters.

[siamcrut]

I refuse plastic bags as well,
as much as I can. At mom& pap store I always get the look when I walk in with the red reusable makro bag!

[manarak]

a quick google search yielded the following:

 

http://samuiwater.com/water-suppliers/

http://samuidays.com/product/voda/

 

[manarak]

4 minutes ago, siamcrut said:

At your home built your own proper water filtration. Outside on the road, just ask for a glass of water at the mom & pap store. They will give you one....

IMO, a water filtration device will be more costly and more of a headache than having water delivered

[roadrunner21]

5 minutes ago, manarak said:

a quick google search yielded the following:

 

http://samuiwater.com/water-suppliers/

http://samuidays.com/product/voda/

 

Yeah I just thought maybe you have your own guy (or company) you could recommend out of a personal experience ?

 

Thanks for the links anyway. Will definitely consider water delivery.

[siamcrut]

IMO, a water filtration device will be more costly and more of a headache than having water delivered

Agree, but r you sure that water is safe?

If the local government stops by for an un-announced water check, you should see how the owner of the water supply company behaves!

If his water was clean, why behave like that...

[manarak]

1 minute ago, siamcrut said:

Agree, but r you sure that water is safe?
If the local government stops by for an announced water check, you should see how the owner of the water supply company behaves!
If his water were clean why behave like that...
Thainess!

can't ever be sure of anything!

just use a reputable service.

[siamcrut]

Well yes, but they have a license to sell “clean” water in barrels to the village!

And they make a fortune!

 

[siamcrut]

I do my own filtration! They don’t like it, but I still buy the cooking gas from them.

[madusa]

32 minutes ago, siamcrut said:

I refuse plastic bags as well,
as much as I can. At mom& pap store I always get the look when I walk in with the red reusable makro bag!

They give you that look because they don't understand that the plastic bag they give you will leach poison into the soil. They never taught them in school. They wonder why you bother to bring your bio-degradable  bag. Language barrier prevents you from explaining to them so the problem doesn't go away. Next time they will still give you a plastic bag. "An Island of Plastic bags". Just look around the beach what you see?

[madusa]

32 minutes ago, siamcrut said:

Agree, but r you sure that water is safe?

If the local government stops by for an un-announced water check, you should see how the owner of the water supply company behaves!

If his water was clean, why behave like that...

I am curious how do they behave? Please give more details I really like to know.

[madusa]

People in Samui should build home made water desalination plant to convert sea water to(almost) plain water. But the water from this home-made water desalination plant is not for drinking it would be use for cleaning and washing especially cooking utensils . Why? Because there is still a tiny bit of salt left in them so your car will rust away if you wash your car with it. Your plates and cups will not , your floor will not. So the desalinated water will help to conserve the normal water on the island.

Is not too difficult to design and built one it would cost quite a bit in the initial outlay but for small cottage industry it will cut water cost and save money in the long run. For small and medium guesthouse it is a god send device. Yes you can use it for shower but rinse your hair with normal tape water after shower.

Endless supply of sea water for you to distill into water for your washing - remember not for drinking and washing cars.

A simple water desalination device was designed by the Chinese in China about 800 years ago. If the Chinese can do it you can do it. A simple device really. The Chinese also designed the first Seismograph to measure earthquake strength. It was also a simple device consist of five metal dragons with little metal balls in each dragon mouth. The movement of the earth will cause the ball to drop on to the metallic bowl below . The number of ball drop indicated the intensity of the shift in earth below. The beauty is in its simplicity- a Zen saying.

 

[Damrongsak]

1 hour ago, madusa said:

People in Samui should build home made water desalination plant...

Passive solar system ...

 

1 hour ago, madusa said:

... The Chinese also designed the first Seismograph to measure earthquake strength. ...

Actually it detected the direction, and had eight dragons.  Some mechanism inside would open the mouth of one of the dragons. Very clever.  http://people.chinesecio.com/en/article/2009-11/04/content_81237.htm

 

[madusa]

7 hours ago, Damrongsak said:

Passive solar system ...

 

Actually it detected the direction, and had eight dragons.  Some mechanism inside would open the mouth of one of the dragons. Very clever.  http://people.chinesecio.com/en/article/2009-11/04/content_81237.htm

 

Nice to have all the photos Mr Damrongsak, however the desalination drawing you have appear to be a slow version to me. it will take too long . Have try to build one on Samui? Are you residing in Samui?

[Damrongsak]

11 minutes ago, madusa said:

Nice to have all the photos Mr Damrongsak, however the desalination drawing you have appear to be a slow version to me. it will take too long . Have try to build one on Samui? Are you residing in Samui?

No, I'm not there.  I live where there is year around rain and rivers and lakes and trees.  And tasty animals like deer running through the yard.

 

I was just trying to illustrate a simple one that has been used in very poor countries or islands where they have virtually no money or technology.  A bit of water can be recovered by digging holes in the ground and covering them with plastic.  There are probably enough plastic bags in the sea and on the islands to produce quite a lot of drinking water.

 

I'm sure technology has improved.  

[madusa]

8 minutes ago, Damrongsak said:

No, I'm not there.  I live where there is year around rain and rivers and lakes and trees.  And tasty animals like deer running through the yard.

 

I was just trying to illustrate a simple one that has been used in very poor countries or islands where they have virtually no money or technology.  A bit of water can be recovered by digging holes in the ground and covering them with plastic.  There are probably enough plastic bags in the sea and on the islands to produce quite a lot of drinking water.

 

I'm sure technology has improved.  

I don't know where you are, you are kind of early. It's almost 8 am here. I am early too because I have successfully side step insomnia, I say side step because insomnia is not an illness so I don't cure myself of insomnia. There are many types of insomnia. I was lucky because mine was a self-induced (unaware of the lifestyle and thoughts that caused my insomnia). Once I understood the reason for it, it just simply disappeared but comes back once in a while but that was acceptable or normal.

You should build one of your desalination plant have a video made and then find a way to sell it to the Thais on Samui. I am sure they would be interested.

I guess you would be successful if your intention is to help rather than to make money of course you do get a little money. Since you live in an estate that you mentioned , with all those deers running around and flowing streams with salmons( I guess) you are not desperate for money.

[khunPer]

On 8/31/2018 at 5:11 PM, madusa said:

People in Samui should build home made water desalination plant to convert sea water to(almost) plain water.

Samui has to my knowledge five desalination plants or filtering plants, I believe the major one is the one in Lipa Noi next to the Land Transport Office.

 

Quote

1) Chaweng Lake providing 3,000 cbm per day
2) Hua Thanon Lake providing 6,000 cbm per day
3) Namuang Waterfall providing 10,800 cbm per day
4) Lipa Noi RO Plant providing between 2,400 and 4,800 cbm per day
5) Plai Laem Desalination plant providing up to 3,000 cbm per day.

Source

 

[khunPer]

On 8/31/2018 at 3:48 PM, roadrunner21 said:

Does anyone have any solution for this? I thought about collecting the rainwater and drink it after filtering. But if someone has a better solution, I'm absolutely open for it!

Buy a 5 liter or 10 liter plastic container and fill it up for 10 baht at the reverse osmosis vending machines, available all over the island. Reuse the small plastic bottles by refilling from your larger containers. However, be aware that reverse osmosis water is extremely clean (same process as desalination), so you don't get the minerals and salt needed, especially in warm weather, where you'll sweat a lot, so extra mineral and especially salt intake might be necessary (a number of people in Europe died this extraordinary hot summer from drinking lots of clean water without salt).

 

Example of reverse osmosis vending machine in Maenam (Google Street View).

 

Lots of plastic, including bags, can be reused, and might be more environmental friendly when reused and disposed correctly, when all parameters are considered, than some other materials that instantly seem more "green". Unneeded plastic is easy to avoid, a polite "no plastic, thanks" (mai plastic, kabun krab) might work well...?

 

You can of course also avoid plastic water bottles and plastic containers by buying drinking water in glass bottles...?

[HAKAPALITA]

How do the young handle all these problems..


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[madusa]

4 hours ago, khunPer said:

Samui has to my knowledge five desalination plants or filtering plants, I believe the major one is the one in Lipa Noi next to the Land Transport Office.

 

Source

 

Surprise, surprise, I never knew they have so many of them. The water desalination plant I was talking about was the home-made one on a small scale. These are big ones probably built by government.

[muratremix]

A household RO water filter costs 3500 baht and you can use it safely.

I won't trust RO water dispensers as god knows if they change filters regularly!

[Gulfsailor]

Or you can just keep buying the plastic bottles of water, and separate the empty bottles from other garbage. These can be sold at any recycling station, or someone will happily collect them from your home, in order to get them recycled. 

[crazykopite]

On 8/31/2018 at 8:53 PM, roadrunner21 said:

This sounds great. Any companies you can recommend? I'm living in the northern part of the island in case it matters.

You can buy them at Home Pro then get your water from a supplier , the water in the blue bottle is much better as it has gone through a better filtering system , sadly plastic around the world is a big issue and until there is a better way of teaching people the dangers to the environment it will only get worse . Here on Phangan when on the beach I can fill a black bag with all types of unfriendly items within 30 minutes. We all need to try and do our bit so well done in your effort and good luck.

[Colabamumbai]

Most towns have water machines everywhere. Refill once or twice.

[duanebigsby]

I use the RO water machines, but make sure the shop it sits in front looks clean and well maintained as well as the machine itself.

[robertson468]

On 8/31/2018 at 9:04 PM, siamcrut said:

Agree, but r you sure that water is safe?

If the local government stops by for an un-announced water check, you should see how the owner of the water supply company behaves!

If his water was clean, why behave like that...

We have been drinking the delivered water now for 14 years and have no issues to report.

 

[Chassa]

Save your plastic and sell it to the local dealer, that's what poor people do.

Better yet, look for poor old people collecting (what you think is rubbish), there must be money in it. Donate your plastic to them -  earn some merit!