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My Yes/No question is:
Is “Chao Phraya River” going to die?
My answer is:
Yes, it is if we don’t try to do anything from now on.
This article from BBC makes me think about what will happen to our Chao Phraya River if the Ganges is going to die. If the Ganges is the mother of India, I’d like compare Chao Praya to the heart of Thailand. For the Ganges case, I think that it might be too late for India to heal the Ganges River. The situation in “Kanpur” is worse than I thought. (I’d suggest you to take a look on the source, there is a short video clip reported the current situation in Kanpur.)
I used to join the Ganges River cruising program in Varanasi with other tourists 5 years ago. I was very excited at that time, seeing thousands of people come to the river in the early morning in order to bathe, drink, do meditation and salute the sun. But the cremation ceremony beside the river where was near the area people drink and bathe surprised me most, the tourist guide told me that the fire has never extinguished for 3,000 years. It couldn’t help to not imagine what those people drink apart from the water. Even though that guy said that the river can heal itself, it was unbelievable. However, he should have changed his belief as soon as possible, not only “something” from cremation, but highly toxic also contaminated in the river.
Look back to the Chao Phraya River; I think that the situation here is going to follow the Ganges crisis. The Chao Phraya used to be clean enough to bath or drink, but now it becomes a waste carrier. In ‘Samut Prakan’, where the Chao Phraya meets the sea, the river is highly polluted. Last years, there was news about chemical wasted from factories in Samut Prakan contaminated in the water. I heard that it is not a good idea to eat fishes caught from this area.
The deforestation in northern part of Thailand is another evidence of bad signal for Chao Phraya’s health. The water level in Thai river has never been low like this before. We have the longest drought period and don’t know when it will be done.
I think that if we and the government still ignore all the signal that shows up, the Chao Phraya might has the same sad ending as The Ganges River.
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Reference
Don't despair. London's Thames river used to be dead and disgusting from the industrial revolution that began in England. In the days of SHerlock Holmes, London was a dirty, unhealthy city. But when people became economically well off, they started to worry about things like having a clean, pleasant environment to live in and the Thames was cleaned up and brought back to life.
ReplyDeleteI think Bangkok has also become more liveable and the air cleaner since I've lived here. And when I lived in Taipei, Taiwan many years ago, that capital of a rapidly developing nation was much more polluted than Bangkok ever was, but it's now much cleaner because when food and basic survival are no longer urgent, people do worry about other things.
Yes, I agree with you that chao praya will be dead really soon. However, we will be able to recover it in the future. Thames river makes me have some hopes. But, by then, many people will have inhaled a lot of pollution so it's better to clean it now than to wait until later.
DeleteI've heard about river recovery in Taiwan and Korea too, they turned dirty river in to a tourism spot. However, Chao Phraya river maybe more difficult because of its long distance, it pass through almost the half of Thailand.
DeleteWhen I read your blog post, I immediately thought about the Chao Phraya river too. last month, I went to Vajira Hospital by the Chao Phraya Express Boat to do activities with other freshmen and sophomores. Definitely, I was very surprised about filth of the Chao Phraya River that is unclear and has lots of garbages. However, many people still use water from the Chao Phraya River such as taking a bath and drinking. That sounds dangerous for people in Thailand.
ReplyDeleteRegarding campaign to make this river become clearer, in Thailand, I have heard many times about campaigns, yet Thai government don't intend to do them or perhaps campaign for a few days. I believe that it's necessary to strict with people to maintain this river by many ways like planting trees, not throwing away rubbish and not releasing substances that affect negative ways to the Chao Phraya River. Otherwise, you will able to see "the Ganges River" in Thailand soon.
I agree with you, especially when I took the boat in Klong Sansab. It smells really bad and the water totally turn to black and green. I think that if I fall into the water, I might not die because of having no oxygen, but infection.
DeleteI think sooner or later it's gonna be dead for maybe a short period of time if people are continuing to destroy the river. I think people should find some ways to protect the significant river of Thailand so it can remain being beautiful as ever and being used for traveling or on other purposes
ReplyDeleteYour blog post make me miss my country. One of the issues is going on in Vietnam is that fishes are dying on over different parts of central region. People are demonstrating to call to save the sea and rivers which are affected by sewage from the industrial areas.
ReplyDeleteSo sad to see what's happening in our countries!!!
I think most rivers in the the world will face this problem soon, especially Chao Phraya river. I think Thai government does not pay attention in solving this kind of problem, environmental problem. Flood, drought, deforestation and pollution are major problems in Thailand but I have never heard of any effective government policy that can solve these.
ReplyDeleteYes, most of them are facing the same problem. The next question is how to solve such a kind of problem. And this would be often questioned for many people.
DeleteNo matter what answer might be, I think this should not be the very responsibility of a government in each countries. Rather, this is our problem and duty.
I am not surprised that why you’ve never heard the effective policy by government. Neither do I. As I said above, if the problem only belongs to a government, it would never be solved effectively. We, as consumers, must help deal with this trouble together with government’s earnestness.
This blog makes me thinking of the rivers in Japan, which is much more neater than what we have here. Japan's rivers and canals are so clear and clean that we can obviously see the carp and other fish there.So, I don't think that everywhere faces with the dirt problem like we do.
ReplyDeleteIt's all depend on the responsibility and behavior of the populations of that country.
This blog makes me thinking of the rivers in Japan, which is much more neater than what we have here. Japan's rivers and canals are so clear and clean that we can obviously see the carp and other fish there.So, I don't think that everywhere faces with the dirt problem like we do.
ReplyDeleteIt's all depend on the responsibility and behavior of the populations of that country.