Chiang Mai, more open sewers

Like Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Thailand's second largest city, seems to have open sewers that people connect to, illegally or legally.  Other people seem to have there own underground seepage pit that their toilets are connected to.  This could be problematic as there are a number of people on wells, even in the densely populated core. Supposedly there is a city connection, but delivery pressure can be irregular during peak hours so many people have elevated tanks to maintain pressure throughout the day.

I did run into one waste water treatment plant that supposedly treats the waste from Chiang Mai University and hospital, which is part of the medical school.  However, in the one photo that I managed to snap before being told to leave showed that the primary clarifiers were completely filled with sludge.  This means that treatment cannot continue.  This was confirmed when we saw the outfall dumping raw looking sewage into another open drainage.

Once again bottled water and RO fillup stations are widely available throughout the city.

Thai Country Side

Even as we venture deeper into the Thai country side, roadside RO treatment stands seem to be ubiquitous. Where there are not roadside stands there are delivery trucks that bring water to residents on a regular basis. There must be places that this is not true, but they cannot be seen from the paved road. I also wonder about the cost prohibitiveness of these sources for some Thai residents.

Thailand First Impressions

Flying over the low lying flood plains of the Praya Chang River, the main north to south river that drains much of Thailand, it became immediately apparent that this country is covered in water.  Even from the plane at many thousands of feet I could see the flooded rice patties, and landscape bisected by many canals of "klongs" as they are refered to in Thai.  Historically these klongs were the life blood of the country serving as the main via ducts for goods and people in the country and cities alike.  As the country pushes towards modernization many of the klongs are being filled, culverted, and crossed limiting their navigability.  Still many poorer residents find themselves living along these waterways in cramped looking shelters either adjacent or in the case of the river on stilts above the waterways.

 These waterways resemble open sewers, showing biological growth on their walls characteristic of that found in the filthiest parts of a wastewater treatment plant.  There is still at least one klong still navigated by public transportation in the main city, the San Saeb Klong that runs east to west.  As the boats speed by they churn up smelly septic water and send large wakes spashing against the retaining walls.  From the decks of these boats I made a good portion of my observations.

Through some research I found that the municipal water in Bangkok is supposedly safe.  There is even a website showing "realtime" data of chlorine residual and turbidity at selected monitoring stations around the city.  Chlorine residual demonstrates the water's ability to resist recontamination from the treatment facility to the tap, and turbidity is a measure of the light transmission through the water (0.00 NTU being perfectly clear) providing a rough metric of the silt, organic, or biological content in the water.  Despite this fact, everyone drinks either bottled water or RO filtered water.  This could be an issue with taste, a stigma from the past, or fear of harsh chemicals used during water treatment.  I myself drank the tap water in the city nearly a week ago and have had no repercussions and did not notice any excessive taste or smell to which I am (I hope) reasonably sensitive.

For those who do not have water purifiers in the home, the streets are dotted with filtered water stations that charge 1 baht/liter (approximately 1.7 cents) for filling.  These machines also advertise UV sterilization,  which seems redundant.

I did not perform any biological tests on the water in the city, I will make a point of this when I return in the new year.