Fridges dumped in canals, Chiang Mai swamped

[webfact]

Fridges dumped in canals, Chiang Mai swamped
By The Nation

 

 

CHIANG MAI: -- Chiang Mai City officials have discovered many large items of trash dumped in the city’s storm sewers that are believed to have slowed drainage and contributed significantly to last month’s extensive flooding in several areas.

 

Deputy Mayor Chatree Chuamanocharn on Friday acknowledged the survey of municipal waterways conducted by Nakhon Chiang Mai Municipality officials implementing the “Ying Thing, Ying Tuam” campaign – whose name translates roughly as “The more garbage disposed of in the wrong places, the worse the flooding”.

 

Chatree said the situation was particularly bad along the Mae Kha Canal in the Fa Mai neighbourhood, the exit point for water draining out of the urban area. Garbage collected there in a bottleneck, he said, impeding drainage.

 

He said municipality workers had recently pulled discarded mattresses, large tree branches and even a refrigerator and washing machine from the canal, along with a multitude of plastic bags full of garbage – 15 tonnes of waste in all. Chatree urged community residents to report anyone throwing hefty material into sewers and canals, especially the Mae Kha, vowing to fine “selfish” litterbugs up to Bt10,000.

 

He urged residents with old furniture, appliances and other large unwanted items to call the municipality during office hours at 053-259116-7 to have workers collected them rather than throwing them into water channels.

 

Municipal workers also had dredged waterways connected to the Ping River near Wat Chaimongkol and a Charoen Prathet mosque and removed a large amount of garbage from storm sewers.

 

The effort was expected to prevent flooding at the Night Bazaar and in Chang Klan and Chareon Prathet, Chatree said. Dredging was also done around the Waroros flower market, he added.

 

“Drainage pipes in the area were clogged with flower stems, plastic ties and plant roots, so when we had heavy rain, it was no wonder there was flooding. Everyone, including merchants, should abide by cleanliness regulations,” he said.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30318235

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-06-16

 

[Just1Voice]

Thai simply don't care, and have no sense of pride.  I live on highway 121 and one morning I took the PCX to the 7-11 less than 2 kilometers away.  The side of the road was absolutely covered in garbage and plastic bags that were not there the evening before.  Which means that someone, after dark, dumped over a ton of garbage along the side of the road during the night.  I once saw a pick up stop, and 3 guys in the back picked up an old refrigerator and simply tossed it out on the side of the road before driving off.  

 

It's not their yard, so they don't give a damn.  

 

[lovelomsak]

When we first bought our house and moved to the village my wife told me to throw many things in the river I will not do that. But many times when coming home and crossing the bridge near our home I will see village people throwing all sorts of stuff off the bridge into the river. If they do not burn it then throw it in the river.

 The garbage collectors hate out house we have  the most garbage in the village.and we recycle and burn.,so really not that much.

[300sd]

We're pigs, we do what we want....no one stops us....

 

Our motto: "we just don't care".

[gk10002000]

There should be no urging.  There should be loud and voracious verbal and written campaign against such crap being tossed out.  Put the people on alert to rat out people that toss bags of garbage into the place.  Then actively enforce whatever laws are out there and publicly post that people were charged and sentenced and fined and the fine was collected.  No time for laziness. This is just disgusting

[impulse]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

He said municipality workers had recently pulled discarded mattresses, large tree branches and even a refrigerator and washing machine from the canal, along with a multitude of plastic bags full of garbage – 15 tonnes of waste in all.

 

I'd bet dollars to donuts the washing machine and fridge have serial numbers that were recorded for warranty purposes and at least a few of those bags contain papers with names and addresses on them.

 

Set an example.  Track down a few of them and fine them big bucks, or (better yet) make them clean out the canals with a shovel and a bucket.  Then make them pay compensation to the poor folks who were flooded.

 

Perhaps others may think twice about where they bin their trash.

 

[ben2talk]

Residents of CM were quoted as saying 'it'll be a cold day in hell before we listen to that twerp'.

[wotsdermatter]

Pity the flooding did not occur in the areas where the dumpers live.  That would be an ironic twist for them.

[mok199]

we all know this happens everywhere,but not to this degree..such beauty as beaches and spiritual canals have no importance to most thais ,when someone can intentionally... discard something like that into a body of water,shows the complete disregard for anything .PERIOD....

[YetAnother]

17 hours ago, webfact said:

The more garbage disposed of in the wrong places, the worse the flooding”.

trouble with this is 'wrong places'; people doing the dumping do not think these are the wrong places; doubtless they will say 'where else...?'

[gk10002000]

58 minutes ago, YetAnother said:

trouble with this is 'wrong places'; people doing the dumping do not think these are the wrong places; doubtless they will say 'where else...?'

agreed.  I would hope the province has some sort of provincial dump or landfill?  If not, then now we have something to work on.  The city and province and amphur or whatever need to step up and provide some civil infrastructure

[curtklay]

While no one was looking, the once beautiful Thailand became a third world shithole and gets worse every day.

[klauskunkel]

We love Thailand so much,... we must decorate it.

[Moti24]

"He urged residents with old furniture, appliances and other large unwanted items to call the municipality during office hours at 053-259116-7 to have workers collected them rather than throwing them into water channels."

 

They can then be sold to finance the new Merc.

[whaleboneman]

18 hours ago, lovelomsak said:

When we first bought our house and moved to the village my wife told me to throw many things in the river I will not do that. But many times when coming home and crossing the bridge near our home I will see village people throwing all sorts of stuff off the bridge into the river. If they do not burn it then throw it in the river.

 The garbage collectors hate out house we have  the most garbage in the village.and we recycle and burn.,so really not that much.

Why do you burn anything? Very bad for the environment.

[williamgeorgeallen]

everyone quick to judge the litter bugs but of course some of the blame lies on the authorities for not having a good collection scheme. this cost money of course which no one will pay. so the cycle continues.

this is a well known problem, about time they cleared the waterways before the rainy season. not after.

[Sydebolle]

Thainess at its best! 

[tifino]

... and what about all that R12 etc, just waiting for the corrosion to set in?

 

 

[nervona81732]

This country is in desperate need of recycling centers and trash cans along with land fills. The population seems to just dump and forget and the rest is history. We ( live here too ) an extensive education program. I am doing my part in Issan but the going is slow except for my property. It is clean as can be. my family gets it. I drive the point home. So as you sow so as you reap. Pollution.

 

[jvs]

I see a lot of people recycling anything they can find,if you leave things by the side of the road some one will pick it up.

If you do not want some poor guy to sell your old discarded fridge you will just chuck it n the river.

I have sais it many times before,as long as the 'mai pen rai' attitude remains

nothing will get better.

[just.a.thought]

Keep it up, it will be so nice here 10 years from now, no tourists no expats just locals living in their garbage

 

[HAL9000]

I got 40 baht for taking our refrigerator to recycling :)

[Nowisee]

The Ocean Conservancy said in a report discussed in the GlobalPost that 60 percent of the plastic trash flowing into the sea originates from China, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand.

 

Go to any beach in or around any of these countries, it's trashed, covered in plastics, glass and styrofoam... 

They are killing the ocean... they are killing the planet.  

Edited June 17, 2017 by Nowisee

[Orton Rd]

On 6/17/2017 at 11:25 AM, williamgeorgeallen said:

everyone quick to judge the litter bugs but of course some of the blame lies on the authorities for not having a good collection scheme. this cost money of course which no one will pay. so the cycle continues.

this is a well known problem, about time they cleared the waterways before the rainy season. not after.

our collections a top class, far better than in the UK, they take anything and no sorting stuff out by the house holder. The local streets are littered with rubbish though for a long way, sometimes set on fire

[williamgeorgeallen]

1 minute ago, Orton Rd said:

our collections a top class, far better than in the UK, they take anything and no sorting stuff out by the house holder. The local streets are littered with rubbish though for a long way, sometimes set on fire

wonder where there is trash everywhere if the collection is so good.

[impulse]

17 hours ago, Nowisee said:

The Ocean Conservancy said in a report discussed in the GlobalPost that 60 percent of the plastic trash flowing into the sea originates from China, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand.

  

They could also say, just as accurately that 60% originates in China, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Switzerland (which has no shoreline).

 

Lumping the 60 million in Thailand with the 1,500 million in China deserves a breakout.  And I'm curious how India's 1,300 million managed to dodge mention.

 

[Retiredandhappyhere]

On 6/16/2017 at 3:01 PM, Just1Voice said:

Thai simply don't care, and have no sense of pride.  I live on highway 121 and one morning I took the PCX to the 7-11 less than 2 kilometers away.  The side of the road was absolutely covered in garbage and plastic bags that were not there the evening before.  Which means that someone, after dark, dumped over a ton of garbage along the side of the road during the night.  I once saw a pick up stop, and 3 guys in the back picked up an old refrigerator and simply tossed it out on the side of the road before driving off.  

 

It's not their yard, so they don't give a damn.  

 

Many of them don't give a damn when it IS their own back yard, even when that yard is attached to their own house.  It seems that they do not notice the accumulation of rubbish after a while and simply keep adding to it.

 

My own (in theory) house built stupidly on a grand scale in a large plot and now occupied by my Thai ex-wife is rapidly becoming a dump too, as nothing is ever cleaned up or put away.

[gk10002000]

13 hours ago, Retiredandhappyhere said:

Many of them don't give a damn when it IS their own back yard, even when that yard is attached to their own house.  It seems that they do not notice the accumulation of rubbish after a while and simply keep adding to it.

 

My own (in theory) house built stupidly on a grand scale in a large plot and now occupied by my Thai ex-wife is rapidly becoming a dump too, as nothing is ever cleaned up or put away.

yeah.  old village life has some hard habits to break. The mentality of modern living just is not there. 

[Ruffian Dick]

On 6/17/2017 at 6:02 AM, Nowisee said:

The Ocean Conservancy said in a report discussed in the GlobalPost that 60 percent of the plastic trash flowing into the sea originates from China, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand.

 

Go to any beach in or around any of these countries, it's trashed, covered in plastics, glass and styrofoam... 

They are killing the ocean... they are killing the planet.  

It won't stop until they realize that "merit" can be gained by recycling.

[Nowisee]

That would require planning, funding, someone in charge, containers for drop-off, someone to pick it up and most importantly, educating the thai public into why its important and how to do it.  That almost seems like an impossible task given the current mentality.

 

I'm not very optimistic, it's easier for them to just chuck it on the ground.