Bangkok canal cleanup begins
Bangkok canals were once filled with clear, clean water & fish. Govt project hopes to cleanup canals & restore them to their former state.
Bangkok canals were once filled with clear, clean water & fish. Govt project hopes to cleanup canals & restore them to their former state.
TRANSPORTATION & WATER POLLUTION
Bangkok canal cleanup begins
10/11/2015
Wasant Techawongtham & Amornrat Mahitthirook
Tourists dip their feet in canal to cool off.
Bangkok canals were once filled with clear, clean water teeming with aquatic life.
Khlongs, as canals are called in Thai, were a ubiquitous feature of Bangkok.
No residence was far from a khlong. But that was a long time ago.
Many of the khlongs have since been filled in and made into roads.
The remaining ones are in a sorry state -- having been left to rot, literally, with household sewage and other waste.
Over the years, there have been many attempts to rehabilitate canals, but they never amounted to much.
The current government has now launched a campaign to clean up Bangkok's canals.
Khlong Lat Phrao and Khlong Saen Saep have been targeted in the initial phase of the programme.
Vendor along a Bangkok canal using the more traditional form of transportation.
SAEN SAEP CANAL CLEANUP
Canal Saen Saep winds it way through downtown Bangkok.
The cabinet has allocated 7 billion baht to clean up the polluted Saen Saep canal in Bangkok and Chachoengsao province over the next two years.
Most of budget, 6.8 billion baht, will go to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) because 45.5 kilometres of the 72km canal are in Bangkok and the water in the canal is more polluted in Bangkok.
The cabinet also ordered the canal rehabilitation project be finished in 2017, instead of the earlier schedule of 2020, in line with an instruction by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.
The prime minister wants Khlong Saen Saep to be clean and safe because there are 28 passenger boat piers and the canal serves about 100,000 commuters a day.
Water in the section of Khlong Saen Saep in Chachoengsao was of better quality, with a higher level of dissolved oxygen, and could be used for agriculture. Water quality in the Bangkok section would be improved to the same standard.
Authorities would also build bicycle lanes and improve the landscape on both banks (or sides) of the canal
Of the 7-billion-baht cleanup budget, 75 million baht will be for surveillance cameras along the canal.
School boats rather than school buses are how people living next to Bangkok canals get to school. Note children are holding nose because of bad smells from canal.
HISTORY OF SAEN SAEP CANAL
Passenger boat along Saen Saep canal.
Saen Saep canal has a fascinating history outlined in a ThaiPBS article here.
Khlong Saen Saep is the longest man-made canal in Thailand.
King Rama III ordered the canal to be built in 1837 to create a water transport route during a war with Vietnam over Cambodian territory and it took three years to build.
After the war, it became a major transport and commercial route.
Currently, it is the only canal which offers a passenger boat service in Bangkok.
The 90 km canal connected the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok with the Bang Pakong river in Chachoengsao
The lotus flowers that grew abundantly in the canal led King Mongkut (1851-1868) to build Sra Pathum Palace (Lotus Pond Palace) as a country residence near the canal (see here). Sra Pathum Palace is now the residence of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.
Today the whole district near the former palace is named Pathumwan district.
Passenger boat travels along green Bangkok canal.
WATER POLLUTION MEASURES
Garbage thrown into canal by canal-side houses in Lat Phrao canal.
Currently, less than half of all wastewater in Bangkok is handled by wastewater treatment plants.
The problem of the foul canal water (khlong water) is being addressed by the construction of a wastewater treatment plant in Bangkok's outer suburb of Min Buri. But this will only be a partial solution because the worst part of the problem occurs closer to the city, where wastewater treatment remains woefully inadequate.
Most Bangkok residences are not equipped with grease traps that can prevent grease from entering canals.
Barge used to dredge canal.
Other activities, such as food stalls, restaurants, car washes, commercial establishments and factories, discharge foul water directly into the canals. Rubbish continues to be thrown mindlessly into canals.
The cleanup will include getting households to install grease traps and equip industrial plants with wastewater treatment systems.
CANAL ENCROACHMENT PROBLEM
In addition to wastewater and water pollution problems, Khlong Lat Phrao faces a serious encroachment problem by some 3,000 households over its 24km length.
Relocation of the encroached households has already begun.
This will be the most difficult phase of the project. Once relocation is complete, work will begin on dredging and constructing flood prevention dykes along its length.
Lat Phrao canal with sign.
Along Lat Phrao canal, houses are located close to or even over the canal.
Lat Phrao canal.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/756020/waste-treatment-alone-cannot-purify-putrid-canal-water
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/760384/b7bn-to-clean-up-khlong-saen-saep
http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/saen-saep-canal-to-be-facelifted-in-two-years-with-seven-billion-baht-budget
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khlong_Saen_Saep
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Thai_royal_residences
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