Call for Thailand’s ‘unacceptable’ water pollution problem to be tackled

[webfact]

Call for Thailand’s ‘unacceptable’ water pollution problem to be tackled
By Pratch Rujivanarom
The Nation

 

 

BANGKOK: -- Wastewater is still a prominent environmental problem for Thailand, with the pollution watchdog cautioning that Thai laws are still too weak to control and reduce water pollution.

 

The warning comes as the regulator, the Industrial Works Department, insisted it has done its best to control and monitor wastewater discharge.

 

The UN’s World Water Day was marked on Wednesday under this year’s theme of “water and wastewater”.

 

Thailand faces several problems related to wastewater – a fact highlighted in October by a massive die-off of giant freshwater stingrays in the Mae Klong River because of poor water quality due to upstream wastewater discharge.

 

The executive director of Ecological Alert and Recovery Thailand (Earth), Penchom Saetang, said the wastewater problem in Thailand remains severe and immediate legal solutions are needed to tackle this chronic environmental problem.

 

“The Pollution Control Department [PCD] disclosed in the annual pollution report for Thailand for 2016 earlier this year that for the overview of water pollution in Thailand last year, the situation was slightly improved. But from my view as a public sector watchdog, I argue that our water pollution problem still remains unacceptable,” Penchom said.

 

“This is because we still face severe water pollution problems in many river basins especially the Chao Phraya, Tha Chin, and Rayong River basins, which are the main industrial bases of the country.”

 

She said that according to the PCD report, the agricultural sector is the largest pollutant as the country’s farms discharged up to 39 million cubic metres of wastewater per day last year, while the industrial sector ranked second after discharging 17.8 million cubic metres per day. The residential sector ranked third with 9.6 million cubic metres per day.

 

She said the efficiency of wastewater treatment processes in the residential sector were only 18 per cent effective, while only 52 per cent of wastewater was treated.

 

"This is the result of weak law enforcement and poor monitoring systems, as our environmental laws require only a few water pollution indicators to be monitored, while many dangerous substances, such as heavy metals, are left largely unnoticed in many water consumption sources,” she said.

 

“Therefore, Thailand should have the Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers law, which requires the operators to identify all pollutants that they release to the outside environment. With this law we can pinpoint who is the big pollution makers and we can deal with them properly.”

 

The Earth director said there should also be financial measures imposed, such as collecting more tax from big polluters.

 

She said authorities should also collect a wastewater treatment fee from everyone to promote the whole of society getting involved in tackling the problem because everyone contributed to the issue.

 

Industrial Works Department (DIW) director-general Mongkol Pruekwatana insisted that the department has worked hard with related agencies to properly monitor and control wastewater discharge in the industrial sector.

 

"Around 35,000 factories across the country are regularly monitored for their wastewater management, as we usually conduct surprise inspections on their wastewater treatment and disposal systems three to four times a year," Mongkol said.

 

"If they are found discharging more polluted water than the safe average, the plants will get a warning to improve their wastewater management systems. But if they do not comply, the factories will be shut down."

 

He said only a few factories that the department inspected did not pass the pollution standard, and almost all big factories generating more than 7,500 cubic metres of wastewater were under a real-time monitoring system and did not cause a pollution problem.

 

"We have the monitoring centre at our department that can monitor the wastewater quality of 291 big factories all the time, which makes sure that their wastewater discharge will not affect the environment," he said.

 

“It’s not only the wastewater discharge monitoring and control. We are also encourage the industrial operators to reuse, reduce, and recycle water so we can cut down the wastewater discharge at the first place.”

 

The DIW director-general said most water pollution was caused by small factories and households, which did not have proper wastewater management systems.

 

“We are trying to build awareness among the operators to save the environment, and I can see that we have made a lot of progress,” he added.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30309876

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-03-22

[Notadoctor]

Now brush your teeth with tap water?

 

i think a matter for major concern is the area between Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate, and the huge industrial complexes between there and Map Ta Put I.E - this includes Pattaya and Ban Chang. Decades of unregulated discharging by factories in this region has already had effects on cancer rates and other symptoms - dead fish etc etc......although people are very relaxed at present, I would be very concerned about the quality of water in the reservoirs and the water tables in that area which serve both industrial and domestic users.....one main problem could be the soil quality - I would love to see results of soil samples from around the catchment areas of those reservoirs. Flooding and illegal discharging could well have spread chemicals and other pollutants throughout the region. One thing for sure though is the authorities have way to much invested in the region for any bad publicity to be permitted if the results turned out bad.

Edited March 22, 2017 by Notadoctor

[maoro2013]

Many Thais  are simply not taught to dispose of rubbish properly. Many open  icreams and other items and simply drop the wrapper on the ground.  This behaviour follows into adulthood. A bit of education might help.

[survivalblue]

Is it time for Songkran again already?

[elgordo38]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand remains severe and immediate legal solutions are needed to tackle this chronic environmental problem.

You better hurry before they empty the bank account for the Chinese subs. 

[Notadoctor]

1 minute ago, maoro2013 said:

Many Thais  are simply not taught to dispose of rubbish properly. Many open  icreams and other items and simply drop the wrapper on the ground.  This behaviour follows into adulthood. A bit of education might help.

It is a mistake to confuse rubbish and pollution.....whereas rubbish may look bad and even be a part of pollution, it is not the only problem  the real threat to health and environment comes from the oderless, colourless substances realised by the petrochemical companies in particular in Chonburi and Rayong

[williamgeorgeallen]

would seem an impossible task in a country riddled with corruption. pretty sure water quality inspectors would rather inspect a brown envelope than a stinky brown klong.

[AhFarangJa]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

She said authorities should also collect a wastewater treatment fee from everyone to promote the whole of society getting involved in tackling the problem because everyone contributed to the issue.

 

Good luck with that one in the rural areas where 300 Baht a day is the norm....if they are lucky.....

[hotchilli]

Ain't gonna happen in my lifetime & I intend to live a lot longer....
I've given up travelling in mini-vans or coaches & given up eating anything that comes out of the rivers or ocean.
Extended my life quite a bit already!

Once the pollution has killed everything in the rivers & gone out to sea & killed everything out there too then maybe someone will do something, but until then don't hold your breath... unless you live in certain areas on the coastline then that actually might be advisable!

[Rimbuman]

Track the polluters.

[darksidedog]

Until Thais understand the very basics about pollution in general, we will have a problem.

It starts with don't thrown your garbage in the bloody river. Or anywhere else to that matter.

Water treatment can only work on that which comes through.

India is the only place I know that is worse, but even they are adressing the problem way more than here, which is only beginning to understand the issue.

Wake up Folks. Everything around you is dying.

[Notadoctor]

On 3/22/2017 at 7:48 PM, darksidedog said:

Until Thais understand the very basics about pollution in general, we will have a problem.

It starts with don't thrown your garbage in the bloody river. Or anywhere else to that matter.

Water treatment can only work on that which comes through.

India is the only place I know that is worse, but even they are adressing the problem way more than here, which is only beginning to understand the issue.

Wake up Folks. Everything around you is dying.

The reason people throw  "rubbish" about is that the government does not provide any satisfactory waste disposal programs.

however house hold waste is only one aspect - industry in Thailand is given virtually a free rein by the government (why not - they are probably one and the same anyway??) and factories both Thai and multi-national take advantage of the total lack of supervision and comeback to dispose of their toxic wastes in just about any way they want - a short "emergency discharge" of a toxic substance into a river may cause the demise of hundreds of fish, but it is very unlikely to have any repercussions for those who own the company...