Thailand: Paradise Lost? Part 1.

[webfact]

ENVIRONMENT/OPINION

Thailand: Paradise Lost? Part 1.

By The Thaiger

 

 

by guest blogger Kent Bowie

 

Thailand has seen rampant tourist development and expansion over the past 25+ years, but at what cost?

 

Is this sustainable or even ethical?

 

Social media has seen an explosive growth too over the last 15+ years, and one thing that annoys many governments worldwide is how the facts and figures delivered by their own agencies often bear no resemblance to the details posted ‘live and online’ by the worldwide army of grassroots commentators and locals on site.

 

In fact social media is having much sway that local governments and even global corporations are being shamed into scrambling to clarify, rectify or justify areas of concern.

 

Not just comments by the public are now on these web-mediums, but entire films and documentaries are now made, published and shared online.

 

Check out this DW report about the problems of rampant tourism…

 

 

Thai tourism has more than doubled in 8 years since 2011, with 34+ million visitors a year! It is worth remembering though that it is not just tourism numbers that are causing natural destruction, more education and awareness is needed by the Thai people too.

 

When tourists comes, they spend, they travel, they eat, they produce waste – and not just the wrappings, litter and disposable plastic drink bottles and food cases – tourists go to the toilet, and 34+ million extra people in Thailand is a lot of extra ‘toilet’.

 

Currently Thailand and Phuket are struggling with out-of-date and broken down waste disposal management. Current laws or regulations for sewage treatment and disposal are either woefully inadequate or more sadly, not even enforced. With the rampant and unabated development and construction of yet more and more condos, villas, tourist ‘leisure’ resorts and sites around Phuket, what happens to all that sewage? 

 

Sadly, in most cases it is simply, cheaply and conveniently (for the developers) piped through to the local klongs, waterways and beaches – out of sight and out of mind maybe?

 

Not so much anymore though, as an army of tourists and locals are now taking photos and videos of the rampant health transgressions and are flocking in greater numbers to social media to highlight this slow and persistent poison that is killing the heart of Thai tourism.

 

 

Would you or your family care to sit on a beach littered with plastic, bottle tops, sand soaked in raw, untreated sewage? Do you want to swim in a brown fetid slick sliding over the once pristine waves onto the beaches?

 

Recently posts regarding huge black pollution flowing onto Bang Tao beaches was shared via social media.

 

The President of Cherng Talay OrBorTor, Ma’ann Samran admitted that “90% of the businesses in the area did not treat their waste-water” which is being released into the Bang Tao canal and – you guessed it – flowing straight out to greet the tourists on the beaches.

 

That’s just one area. The story repeats throughout Thailand. Similar posts have been shared recently for Krabi, Jomtien and Pattaya. And it’s not just recently but over the past decade as the situation has become more common, worse and more people are posting pictures of the ugly situation.

 

Unless something is done, urgently, then Thailand, along with the southern tourist money-spinner, Phuket, will continue to lose tourists, especially when so many other countries are now going out of their way to welcome them.

 

We will look at where the tourists are now going in Part II of our article.

 

Source: https://thethaiger.com/news/opinion/thailand-paradise-lost-part-1

 

 

-- © Copyright The Thaiger 2019-06-11

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[thaicurious]

https://www.travelagentcentral.com/running-your-business/stats-record-126-1-million-visitors-to-florida-2018

Florida set a new tourism record in 2018. According to newly released statistics from Visit Florida, the state’s official tourism organization, Florida welcomed 126.1 million out-of-state visitors last year, marking the eighth consecutive record year for the state and exceeding last year’s record 118.8 million visitors by 6.2 percent.

 

https://www.talgov.com/growth/growth-confaq.aspx

What Is Concurrency?

"Concurrency" is a shorthand expression for a set of land use regulations that local governments are required (by the Florida Legislature) to adopt to ensure that new development does not outstrip local government's ability to handle it. For a development to "be concurrent" or "meet concurrency" the local government must have enough infrastructure capacity to serve each proposed development. Specifically, concurrency regulations require that local government has the capacity in stormwater, parks, solid waste, water, sewer and mass transit facilities to serve each proposed development. Together, these seven public services are known as "concurrency facilities". 

 

Local governments are required to maintain a "concurrency management system" to keep track of the impacts of new development on concurrency facilities....

[mommysboy]

Thailand- it's people and government- won't pay the necessary bills for upkeep.  It's not unlike a hotel owner refusing to service and maintain the hotel, rather blaming customers for using the facilities.

[Denim]

What it boils down to is , do you want the money or not ?

 

Can't have it both ways.

[stanleycoin]

Thailand just consumes everything and puts next to zero back.

But is happy to play the blame game,  whilst collecting the fat pay cheques.

Whats new. Nothing. 

[Sonhia]

The impact of tourism has affected the once humble Thai culture plus enviroment in both a positive plus negative sense.

 

Many expats that have been visiting or living within Thailand since their much earlier years have all passed negative comments regarding the way inwhich the culture has changed.

 

Since living for the past 12 years within Thailand, I too have witnessed how greedy, racist, uncompassionate, disrespectful Thais have become toward foreginers plus the lawlessness..

 

The negative impact socially and environmentally has all been created by Thai themselves.  Leave children in a sweetshop unattended as see what happens, meaning that the lack of control by the Thai authorities,  who have seen fit to line thier own pockets regardless, has fuelled a now somewhat dirty, filthy, lawless, racist, greedy, polluted, expensive country.

 

Thai should blame themselves. It comes as no surprise foreginers are starting to seek alternative destinations, which is inevitable...I know I am and so are many of my friends too.

 

Som nom na. They abuse the hands that feed them. 

[neeray]

34 minutes ago, webfact said:

Thai tourism has more than doubled in 8 years since 2011, with 34+ million visitors a year!

Hmm. Has it really doubled or has the accounting just become more creative?

 

Anecdotal reports indicate that tourism has decreased.

[WalkingOrders]

"And part 2 we will look at where the tourists are now going". I hope this isn't a print version of one those youtube videos popping up that tout the beauty of Vietnam while bashing Thailand....

[Misty]

"Unless something is done, urgently, then Thailand, along with the southern tourist money-spinner, Phuket, will continue to lose tourists, especially when so many other countries are now going out of their way to welcome them."

 

I wonder if rather than doing something urgently, the response will simply be to target a different type of tourist?  One who may have less to spend, but at least doesn't mind these types of conditions.

[Vacuum]

1 hour ago, Sonhia said:

foreginers are starting to seek alternative destinations, which is inevitable...I know I am and so are many of my friends too

There's plane/busloads of Chinese arriving daily to replace you and your friends. They couldn't give a hoot if a few long stay foreigners chose another country to live in.

[anterian]

Sewage in my village goes from the houses into the street drains which then flow directly into a local klong. This klong then links to the local river system.

[VocalNeal]

10 minutes ago, anterian said:

Sewage in my village goes from the houses into the street drains which then flow directly into a local klong. This klong then links to the local river system.

Hmm? Most houses have a septic tank and yes while the overflow probably does exactly what you say it is not untreated sewage which was the inference you wanted.

 

At least they don't have septic fields with the resultant risk of ground water pollution.

[kingstonkid]

There needs to be a monetary cost associated with having a business in tourist areas.  Using Pattaya as an example the best system is to charge a flat fee to those that own the businesses or buildings along the beach road.

 

For other hotels and bars also charge a tourist fee.  

 

The money from this is to be used to upgrade the city and maintain it.

 

This is where and why it will never work because there would be too much money and the chance of corruption or dipping fingers into the account would be too great.

 

[biggles45]

" In time they will catch up and take care of what needs to be done. No, it´s not a lost paradise. "

 

No they wont', have you seen the projected tourism numbers.? It will just get worse they will always be 6-8 years behind what needs to be done. it is not the Thai way to allocate money to solve problems, Better to just ignore them, count the cash inflow and let others worry about the consequences. This is why the infrastructure cant keep up with the development. 

[Mitkof Island]

Mass tourism has destroyed what made Thailand so beautiful. Every tourist slum is starting to look the same.

[CGW]

5 hours ago, Sonhia said:

the once humble Thai culture plus enviroment

Lets not get too carried away, the lifestyle here was hardly idealistic 30 years ago, back then it was pefectly acceptable for "poor" Thai families to sell their daughters to a brothel at ~14 years old so she could provide them with money, the greed factor has always been there.

The filth and pollution has always been there, go to the vast majority of small Thai villages and they will be living in, by western standards "squalor" with little interest in bettering their lot in life, they and their families have been "serfs" for a long time, the education system and the indoctrination maintains the status quo.

Applying western ideologies here? impossible! It will never be possible until their are massive changes at the top - the possibility of that happening has just gone into reverse!

[utalkin2me]

They need to make everything possible down south and other areas as well, national parks. Those are absolute treasures of diversity and beauty the likes of which cannot be seen in many countries at all. 

 

Long term that is absolutely where it is at. Definitely not too late. I really do believe they will do it too. There is just so much money at stake and eco tourism really is the way of the future. Even rice farms!... there are white folk high and low who would pay good money to farm rice and live in a farmers home. Yet that is completely unheard of. Again, I do believe they will wake up to this, because it is the best and most lucrative for all in the long term. 

[the guest]

Thailand was a great place to live, but not anymore. Greed mostly has killed the place.

Many of my friends have already moved to more fertile ground like Vietnam & Cambodia where it's still good value for money, friendly and retains it's rather rustic appearance. 

 

The land of smiles is no more, quite sad!

[mike787]

Lost?  More like gone for good!  It's completely destroyed everywhere.  If Thais cared they would show it.  FACT:  Thais DO NOT CARE! 

[Sametboy2019]

5 hours ago, Misty said:

"Unless something is done, urgently, then Thailand, along with the southern tourist money-spinner, Phuket, will continue to lose tourists, especially when so many other countries are now going out of their way to welcome them."

 

I wonder if rather than doing something urgently, the response will simply be to target a different type of tourist?  One who may have less to spend, but at least doesn't mind these types of conditions.

This post is 100% correct. The westerners are leaving but the Chinese and Indians are here. A different type of tourist who doesnt mind the conditions. This may carry on buy what happens when the countries run out and the whole world thinks Thailand is a shithole?

[pattayadgw]

Like nearly everything here, nothing is ever thought through!!

[DuiDui48]

5 hours ago, Misty said:

but at least doesn't mind these types of conditions.

..and say welcome to the Chinese tourist..for sure they don't care..

[Skallywag]

4 hours ago, anterian said:

Sewage in my village goes from the houses into the street drains which then flow directly into a local klong. This klong then links to the local river system.

The whole island of Victoria BC did not have sewage system until 2016.  All flowed into rivers, then Pacific Ocean.  just a few hundred thousand people though

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/leave-victorias-raw-sewage-alone-alberta

[midzo]

4 hours ago, VocalNeal said:

Hmm? Most houses have a septic tank and yes while the overflow probably does exactly what you say it is not untreated sewage which was the inference you wanted.

 

At least they don't have septic fields with the resultant risk of ground water pollution.

Yes, the overflow is untreated sewage, just some of the solids are removed.

 

Properly designed and operated septic systems do protect ground water quality. The septic tank at my US home is less than 30 meters from my annually-tested well (concerns about contamination from old gold-mining operations) and the well has never had any bacterial contamination. 

[seminomadic]

Kudos to Thaiger for drawing attention to this, and pointing out social media's role in amplifying awareness of it.

 

At first, I thought... "Geez, there are 20 billion better images you could have used to showcase Thai tourist destinations?" and then after reading the article... I was... just..... "Oh."

 

[GreasyFingers]

3 hours ago, mike787 said:

Lost?  More like gone for good!  It's completely destroyed everywhere.  If Thais cared they would show it.  FACT:  Thais DO NOT CARE! 

Rooster had an article on that very subject some while ago. It is the difference between Thai thinking and falang thinking. It troubles me most days.

[ocddave]

2 minutes ago, GreasyFingers said:

Rooster had an article on that very subject some while ago. It is the difference between Thai thinking and falang thinking. It troubles me most days.

We see something to be saved, they see something to be exploited.

[GreasyFingers]

5 minutes ago, ocddave said:

We see something to be saved, they see something to be exploited.

I do not need to save anything. It is just a pain in the arse to deal with it every day down to the lowest common denominator.

[CGW]

4 minutes ago, ocddave said:

We see something to be saved, they see something to be exploited.

Unfortunately true! so many of the Thais that "we" deal with & meet have spent most of their lives in abject poverty, when they meet a "Farang" the first thought that appears to come to their minds is $$$$ money! It's always been that way here, it isn't a recent event, going back to my earliest foggy memories it was the same & I have been here well over 30 years.

[madmen]

3 hours ago, the guest said:

Thailand was a great place to live, but not anymore. Greed mostly has killed the place.

Many of my friends have already moved to more fertile ground like Vietnam & Cambodia where it's still good value for money, friendly and retains it's rather rustic appearance. 

 

The land of smiles is no more, quite sad!

What date is your flight? ????