Environmental Quality Slumps: Thailand

[webfact]

Environmental quality slumps

The Natio

Air quality in and around Bangkok has deteriorated this year with residents subject to more fine dust particles.

BANGKOK: -- The country was also overwhelmed by some 16-million tonnes of garbage, while coastal seawater and river mouths were polluted by wastewater released from homes, industries, and farming.

The Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP) yesterday hosted a meeting to assess the environmental situation for 2012 and changes over the past decade. They found deteriorating environmental quality due to the increased consumption of natural resources for the economy and industry.

Environmental Engineering Association of Thailand (EEAT) adviser Supat Wangwongwattana said Thailand faced many types of air pollution over the past 10-20 years. Carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and lead had been lowered, while tiny-particle dust from car exhaust had risen, especially in Bangkok, Pathum Thani, Samut Sakhon and Nonthaburi.

Garbage also was a worry with last year's amounting to about 16 million tonnes - a 5 per cent increase from 2010 - while only 36 per cent was disposed of properly. He said only about a quarter of community garbage was recycled.

The quality of coastal seawater and river-mouth water had also worsened with seawater at the Chao Phraya River mouth, Chan Damri beach, Ranong River mouth and Laem Ngob deemed as "very bad", he said. The amount of good water has declined over the past four years from 12 per cent to only 2 per cent.

Supat said coastal seawater pollution resulted from home waste (60 per cent) and untreated wastewater from factories and farms (40 per cent). Some 101 communities were equipped with water treatment systems but could treat only 10 per cent of all wastewater. Each year the government funds wastewater treatment for 10 communities out of 8,000, Supat said. Some local bodies failed to get the system running, claiming there was no money to fund power and they couldn't collect such fees from residents and local businesses.

Another speaker from Chulalongkorn University's (CU) Engineering Faculty, Chanatip Parino, mentioned the imbalance between water supply and demand.

Sitthidech Pongkitworasin from Chulalongkorn University's Economy Faculty said use of energy rose by 2 per cent per year. In 2011, energy use was equal to 70,562 KOTE in crude oil - a third going to industry and a third to transport, while efficiency technology was behind many countries.

-- The Nation 2012-11-14

[dcutman]

Every sentence in this article is so disturbing.

Thailand is a developing country? Developing into what, a cesspool?

Its only going to take 800 years to get complete waste water treatment for the country at the rate the government is funding it. Can only properly dispose of 36% of garbage properly, WOW!

Sadly, reading this story, there does not seem to be inclination that things are going to change for the better.

[asiawatcher]

In a country who can't even get 3G happening by throwing a few switches by getting bogged down in bureaucracy, what chance does the environment have? This is a governmental issue but that also means nothing will occur. Education to householders is a start, slamming factories and businesses is essential, but with all the corruption, the factories will simply pay off the 'officials' and there will be no changes. Nothing changes T.i.T.

[fareastguy]

As always money will be spent where money can be made !!

Central Bangkok & along the shores of the tourist hotspots.

Move away from the high rise offices & the 5 star hotels you see the true face of Thailand.. Asia's biggest open air toilet !

Look at the photo in the post & you'd think some one had to trawl the archives to find that, unfortunately we all see these on a daily basis & know that this is the reality of Thailand.

Shanty town dwellings, open sewers for river systems, non regulated industrial pollution, waste mis-management on a grand scale & water treatment at an all time low..

Thailand is an embarrassment to other developing Asean nations, Yingluk & her predecessors should hang their collective heads in shame.

[Mosha]

Look out of the aircraft's window on approach to BKK in the morning. Take note of the air colour. It's looked horrible for decades.

[jonclark]

As always money will be spent where money can be made !!

Central Bangkok & along the shores of the tourist hotspots.

Move away from the high rise offices & the 5 star hotels you see the true face of Thailand.. Asia's biggest open air toilet !

Look at the photo in the post & you'd think some one had to trawl the archives to find that, unfortunately we all see these on a daily basis & know that this is the reality of Thailand.

Shanty town dwellings, open sewers for river systems, non regulated industrial pollution, waste mis-management on a grand scale & water treatment at an all time low..

Thailand is an embarrassment to other developing Asean nations, Yingluk & her predecessors should hang their collective heads in shame.

What you say can't be true. Thai people always repeat the following phrase to me "Thailand is very beautiful" . Or is repeated use of this mantra all part of a mass, collective hypnoses and conditioning to promote ignorance of the truth.... i wonder?

[trainman34014]

No money in cleaning for HIgh So's and they are unlikely to even notice when their heads are, for the most part, either in the clouds, up their butt's or in their bank books.

[drdoom6996]

This government has paid the Thai people up front at the polling station for their votes. Now, maybe, they might see what they got for the money they received. And then again, maybe not.

[ratcatcher]

As always money will be spent where money can be made !!

Central Bangkok & along the shores of the tourist hotspots.

Move away from the high rise offices & the 5 star hotels you see the true face of Thailand.. Asia's biggest open air toilet !

Look at the photo in the post & you'd think some one had to trawl the archives to find that, unfortunately we all see these on a daily basis & know that this is the reality of Thailand.

Shanty town dwellings, open sewers for river systems, non regulated industrial pollution, waste mis-management on a grand scale & water treatment at an all time low..

Thailand is an embarrassment to other developing Asean nations, Yingluk & her predecessors should hang their collective heads in shame.

Stop complaining. .This government (and its predecessors) are more interested in things like high speed trains, mountains of rice and hub development.

Well, until local governments get serious about waste disposal facilities and collection, every vacant spot will be a dump site. In my area (Pathum Thani) garbage is dumped alongside the roads, thrown in ditches and even vacant lots in the moobaan. It is not a problem most politicians like to deal with. Not much money to be raked off. In certain parts of North America the local government provides dumpsters or bins to receive garbage.

Maybe some smart operator here could start a system. Lots of money to be made. "Where there's muck, there's brass"

[brianP]

Recycle and water aeration plants,ozone and UV lights, solar water pumps, re-circulation coolers and air to water machines,and more to do out there!

[fisherd3]

Here on Mae Ramphung Beach, Ban Phe , Rayong, garbage washed in from the the sea including from fishing boats and looking at it garbage thrown overboard by merchant ships possibly docking at/off Mattaphut industrial estate is a disgrace,

Toothbrushes, many cigarette lighters, huge lightbulbs, fluorescent lightbulbs, television tubes, cosmetic containers, hundreds of juice/milk boxes, thousands of various polythene bags, the odd black sack with rubbish inside intact, parts of plastic kitchen fittings, the list goes on.

I am talking about a three metre band of washed in rubbish for the length of a 10 kilometre beach yesterday 13th November. See attachment..

This is a regular and developing beach frequented by Bangkok Thais at weekends with often many big coaches parked along the Beach Road and many farangs in high season not some isolated spot, some of this beach is designated part of the Koh Samet National Park.

The logistics of doing something about this kind of pollution must be quite difficult I know it happens around the world and Yes if a system was in place to apprehend the culprits at sea the captains would just pay off the coastguard and the pollution would continue unabated.

So it May be realistic (and not just a Farang - Thai Pessimistic) outlook that it will get worse as industry / fishing / shipping increases, and another important facet of Thailands infrastructure / tourist appeal / green condition falls to the inherent corruption (farang perception which in Thai society is not really considered corruption because it is the normal way of life) that exists, and the then impossibility of dealing with anything.

Mai Pen Rai !

[ratcatcher]

Sorry for multipost please remove.

AMAZING THAILAND - beautiful beaches, clear waters, paradise.

(BTW Excellent photograph)

[metisdead]

Unfortunately posts containing copyrighted pictures have been removed. Please do not post photos that are clearly copyrighted, this applies for all copyrighted pictures where posters are not owners.

[timewilltell]

Every sentence in this article is so disturbing.

Thailand is a developing country? Developing into what, a cesspool?

Its only going to take 800 years to get complete waste water treatment for the country at the rate the government is funding it. Can only properly dispose of 36% of garbage properly, WOW!

Sadly, reading this story, there does not seem to be inclination that things are going to change for the better.

It is not developing INTO a cesspool it is accelerating into the bottom of it.

[timewilltell]

This government has paid the Thai people up front at the polling station for their votes. Now, maybe, they might see what they got for the money they received. And then again, maybe not.

But you need to be educated to understand the writing on the wall!

[spidermike007]

Have you ever seen a Thai person refuse a plastic bag at a grocery store, or carry their own? What about engaging in a clean up campaign on the beaches? Thailand is 30 years behind many countries of the world when it comes to environmental awareness. Nothing seems to be taught in the schools nor at home.

Sent from my Samsung galaxy s3 Thaivisa Connect App

[vijer]

I used to think Thailand was nice too, before I started living here, now I know better and I am sad everyday.

[Hugo6]

Recycle and water aeration plants,ozone and UV lights, solar water pumps, re-circulation coolers and air to water machines,and more to do out there!

you are right. There is a lot more to do out there.

Just a quick look around and it is obvious that the basics in infrastructure aren't there in a lot of places. Just guaranteed clean water and sewage treatment is essentially nonexistent in some places, not to mention the other issues.

Amazing. And scary