The urban myth that Pattaya beach is dirty

[Gabor 296]

I was as overjoyed as the next beach-avoider when I saw the title of this topic on the Teakdoor website recently.

 

But just as I was pulling on my swimming trunks and bathing cap to dive into the sea near the water/sewage outflow pipe at the top of Walking Street (near the well-located sewage treatment centre), I paused for a moment and read some of the posts.

 

It all started with a non-Pattaya resident poster called Socal, who boldly advanced the argument that Pattaya’s beaches are actually clean, using some internet-garnered scientific cut and paste resources and ending with the comment:

 

The beach is not dirty, it is safe to swim in, and every rumor you hear out there is bullshit.

 

Of course, to many who actually live in Pattaya, it wasn’t bull effluent which concerned them, but that of a human kind, and the poster received a well-deserved blast from some thoughtful, intelligent and well-informed posters on the subject of the treatment of waste in our fair city. And some plain abusive ones too.

 

Mind you the poster didn’t help himself or his argument when he mistakenly posted a nice photograph of JOMTIEN beach and its cleaner sea, instead of Pattaya Beach, as a way of advancing his argument about the cleanliness of the seawater in Pattaya bay.

 

He was pulled up on this by Dirtydog: Jomtien is ok, I have seen cleaner places in the world, but trying to prove that Pattaya beach is clean by posting a photo of Jomtien beach is slightly misleading to say the least.

 

Some really disturbing facts came out of this topic. For example, Dirtydog made the point that although Pattaya’s rainwater drainage should just contain rainwater, in fact it is a very common practice in the city for old shophouses, especially those in sois close to the beach, to connect their waste pipes and cess pits containing raw sewage into it.

 

Loy Toy also said this is common in residential properties and developments throughout the city.

 

As this stormwater exits into the sea, in both Pattaya and Jomtien, it inevitably carries more than rainwater with it.

 

Also hold that thought for when the city’s streets are flooded in storms and you have to walk through the resulting lakes and rivers of water.

 

Halfmile said: No sea-birds at the beach, nor any crabs running in the sand at sunset. Pattaya Beach seems to be a maritime deathzone.

 

Perhaps the reasons for that were highlighted by posters such as Lostandfound, who said:

 

It's not just Pattaya city shit to worry about, there's a whole petro-chemical industry up the coast pumping out who knows what, plus all of Bangkok's crap coming down the Chao Phraya River.

 

Norton disturbingly expanded on this theme: The quality of Pattaya sewage treatment is a factor in polluting its beach.

 

Even if their sewage treatment was so good the output could be bottled and sold as Pattaya Pure Mountain Spring water, Pattaya beach would still have a significant pollution problem. Being "down stream", everything dumped into the Chao Phraya River (industrial waste, sewage, city drainage water), Samut Prakan (industrial waste, pesticides, prawn farming waste) and Chon Buri (industrial waste and pesticides) ends up at Pattaya beach and everywhere else on the Eastern seaboard albeit somewhat diluted from the source.

 

Loy Toy succinctly hit another nail on the head when he said: Pattaya, in fact the whole of Chon Buri Province, has a major problem, and that is development versus infrastructure availability.

 

A great example of Thailand in general. Not enough infrastructure to handle the amount of traffic.

 

I live quite close to the biggest waste water plant in Pattaya and it has not been upgraded in the last 10 years yet the number of people living in the area has grown 100 fold.

 

Without going into too much detail I have had senior council officials stand in front of me and admit they have allowed whole communities to pipe their sewage pipes directly into the storm water systems and those pipes go nowhere near the waste water treatment plants.

 

This water ends up flowing into Pattaya Bay, everyone knows it including the TAT and the hotel association.

 

At this stage I would at least like to balance this commentary with some credible arguments as to why the waters of Pattaya ARE cleaner than we think. However except for the original poster, Socal, who gamely (and amusingly) stuck to his guns, even though he had to move his own goalposts to do it, there wasn’t one serious rebuttal of the argument that Pattaya Bay is indeed filthy and hazardous to health.

 

http://inpattayanow.com/2011/11/11/opinion/the-urban-myth-that-pattaya-beach-is-dirty/

[pattaya_mad 208]

pattaya has a beach???

[journeyman 17]

Surely the smell arising from the drains on second road must give some idea of the quality of the water being flushed into the bay.

I have allways thought that wading through flood water around there, especially if you have any cuts or sores below the waterline, must be like playing russian roulette.

[StefanH 3]

Halfmile said: No sea-birds at the beach, nor any crabs running in the sand at sunset. Pattaya Beach seems to be a maritime deathzone

 

 

Good point

 

Whatever the reason is, I think that there cannot be blamed the sewage alone

[9cisco999 107]

Surely the smell arising from the drains on second road must give some idea of the quality of the water being flushed into the bay.

I have allways thought that wading through flood water around there, especially if you have any cuts or sores below the waterline, must be like playing russian roulette.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That thought has certainly crossed my mind.

 

 

 

[Bazle 1,449]

I was as overjoyed as the next beach-avoider when I saw the title of this topic on the Teakdoor website recently.

 

But just as I was pulling on my swimming trunks and bathing cap to dive into the sea near the water/sewage outflow pipe at the top of Walking Street (near the well-located sewage treatment centre), I paused for a moment and read some of the posts.

 

It all started with a non-Pattaya resident poster called Socal, who boldly advanced the argument that Pattaya’s beaches are actually clean, using some internet-garnered scientific cut and paste resources and ending with the comment:

 

The beach is not dirty, it is safe to swim in, and every rumor you hear out there is bullshit.

 

Of course, to many who actually live in Pattaya, it wasn’t bull effluent which concerned them, but that of a human kind, and the poster received a well-deserved blast from some thoughtful, intelligent and well-informed posters on the subject of the treatment of waste in our fair city. And some plain abusive ones too.

 

Mind you the poster didn’t help himself or his argument when he mistakenly posted a nice photograph of JOMTIEN beach and its cleaner sea, instead of Pattaya Beach, as a way of advancing his argument about the cleanliness of the seawater in Pattaya bay.

 

He was pulled up on this by Dirtydog: Jomtien is ok, I have seen cleaner places in the world, but trying to prove that Pattaya beach is clean by posting a photo of Jomtien beach is slightly misleading to say the least.

 

Some really disturbing facts came out of this topic. For example, Dirtydog made the point that although Pattaya’s rainwater drainage should just contain rainwater, in fact it is a very common practice in the city for old shophouses, especially those in sois close to the beach, to connect their waste pipes and cess pits containing raw sewage into it.

 

Loy Toy also said this is common in residential properties and developments throughout the city.

 

As this stormwater exits into the sea, in both Pattaya and Jomtien, it inevitably carries more than rainwater with it.

 

Also hold that thought for when the city’s streets are flooded in storms and you have to walk through the resulting lakes and rivers of water.

 

Halfmile said: No sea-birds at the beach, nor any crabs running in the sand at sunset. Pattaya Beach seems to be a maritime deathzone.

 

Perhaps the reasons for that were highlighted by posters such as Lostandfound, who said:

 

It's not just Pattaya city shit to worry about, there's a whole petro-chemical industry up the coast pumping out who knows what, plus all of Bangkok's crap coming down the Chao Phraya River.

 

Norton disturbingly expanded on this theme: The quality of Pattaya sewage treatment is a factor in polluting its beach.

 

Even if their sewage treatment was so good the output could be bottled and sold as Pattaya Pure Mountain Spring water, Pattaya beach would still have a significant pollution problem. Being "down stream", everything dumped into the Chao Phraya River (industrial waste, sewage, city drainage water), Samut Prakan (industrial waste, pesticides, prawn farming waste) and Chon Buri (industrial waste and pesticides) ends up at Pattaya beach and everywhere else on the Eastern seaboard albeit somewhat diluted from the source.

 

Loy Toy succinctly hit another nail on the head when he said: Pattaya, in fact the whole of Chon Buri Province, has a major problem, and that is development versus infrastructure availability.

 

A great example of Thailand in general. Not enough infrastructure to handle the amount of traffic.

 

I live quite close to the biggest waste water plant in Pattaya and it has not been upgraded in the last 10 years yet the number of people living in the area has grown 100 fold.

 

Without going into too much detail I have had senior council officials stand in front of me and admit they have allowed whole communities to pipe their sewage pipes directly into the storm water systems and those pipes go nowhere near the waste water treatment plants.

 

This water ends up flowing into Pattaya Bay, everyone knows it including the TAT and the hotel association.

 

At this stage I would at least like to balance this commentary with some credible arguments as to why the waters of Pattaya ARE cleaner than we think. However except for the original poster, Socal, who gamely (and amusingly) stuck to his guns, even though he had to move his own goalposts to do it, there wasn’t one serious rebuttal of the argument that Pattaya Bay is indeed filthy and hazardous to health.

 

http://inpattayanow.com/2011/11/11/opinion/the-urban-myth-that-pattaya-beach-is-dirty/

Gabor

 

Ignoring the quotes, these do not seem to be your words

 

EDIT: Sorry, I understand now. The WHOLE thing, even including the first sentence, is a quote.

Edited November 11, 2011 by Bazle

[bigl 0]

That thought has certainly crossed my mind.

 

And my mind as well. Last April I was staying in a hotel in Soi Bukaow (sp)? There was plenty of rain and lots of slight flooding everywhere. Well I picked up a bug in an open wound on my left foot. Within 2 days I was only able to crawl around. I had developed Cellulitis. (the third time in my life.)

Very farkin painfull. I changed all my holiday plans and flew back to Melbourne that night.

My loverly Thai wife met me at the airoprt and we took a taxi straight to Epworth Hospital in Richmond, Melbourne.

I was admitted straight away and was placed in ICU for 2 days, then about 8 days in the Cardiac ward and finally another 6 days in a normal ward.

I had so much happening to me.Being a diabetic, already had half of my left foot amputated. ( thats why I still have an open wound)The extreme swelling of my leg and the Infection of the bug caused stress to my heart. Also having systemic heart disease and a stent already inserted a couple of years ago.. I was really in a mess.

Discharged to travel home to Sale Vic. Onlynext day to be admitted for another 4 days in Sale hospital.All related to the cellulitis and my heart condition. I still have not got over the experience as yet.

Last week I arrived home from another couple of weeks in Thailand.I avoided as much as the flooding as possible.So far no infections.

And now only 79 days untill my wife and I head back for another month.

My question is ? That trip nearly killed me but why do we seem to be unable to stop from returning???? Its got me bugged,

Cheers n Beers,

lesdunbar

[Siam Sam 964]

I'm pretty sure there's already a thread somewhere on the board for urban myths.

[joekicker 53]

It all started with a non-Pattaya resident poster called Socal, who boldly advanced the argument that Pattaya’s beaches are actually clean, using some internet-garnered scientific cut and paste resources and ending with the comment:

 

The beach is not dirty, it is safe to swim in, and every rumor you hear out there is bullshit.

 

So Socal doesn't know the difference between a beach and water. But you should. So should pretty well everyone.

 

.

[Siam Sam 964]

The dirty street water that is pouring into Pattayan beach in this video doesn't look too salubrious to me. I don't think the case for it being a reputable beach holds up, just on the strength of this video I took. I dread to think what is rinsed from the street into that drainage pipe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I never go in it, that's for sure. Why would you when Jomtien is up the road?

Edited November 12, 2011 by Siam Sam

[villayouth 37]

The dirty street water that is pouring into Pattayan beach in this video doesn't look to salubrious to me. I don't think the case for it being a reputable beach holds up, just on the strength of this video I took. I dread to think what is rinsed from the street into that drainage pipe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I never go in it, that's for sure. Why would you when Jomtien is up the road?

 

fuck me ive swam in that cack

 

Still, im used to being bollox deep in the shit

[papillon 695]

The dirty street water that is pouring into Pattayan beach in this video doesn't look to salubrious to me. I don't think the case for it being a reputable beach holds up, just on the strength of this video I took. I dread to think what is rinsed from the street into that drainage pipe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I never go in it, that's for sure. Why would you when Jomtien is up the road?

That dirty water is going to flow under PBG and away along Walking Street and out to sea. It's not going to affect Pattaya Beach or the water along the beach.

 

Mind you, I wouldn't want to swallow any of it.

 

I've just been watching news footage of the flooding in LOS. All the little kids swimming in the flood water. It reminded me of the time I hired a Long Tail boat and went exploring around the Klangs in Bangkok. Kids, Adults swimming and bathing in the filthy Chao Phraya river water.

 

We are a fairly resiliant race, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

[joekicker 53]

I've just been watching news footage of the flooding in LOS. All the little kids swimming in the flood water. It reminded me of the time I hired a Long Tail boat and went exploring around the Klangs in Bangkok. Kids, Adults swimming and bathing in the filthy Chao Phraya river water.

 

It's not generally filthy. It's brown from the topsoil, not dirty. Buy a bottle of water, you're drinking that water, EXACTLY that water.

 

NOW, right today, the flooded areas in Bangkok are generally beyond filthy. That's because floods are stagnant, they sit there for days and days. And many of the klongs are filthy because they're pumping the floods into the klongs. The river is still amazingly un-filthy, although.... heh.

 

.

[Desmond Jones 196]

It's not generally filthy. It's brown from the topsoil, not dirty. Buy a bottle of water, you're drinking that water, EXACTLY that water.

 

NOW, right today, the flooded areas in Bangkok are generally beyond filthy. That's because floods are stagnant, they sit there for days and days. And many of the klongs are filthy because they're pumping the floods into the klongs. The river is still amazingly un-filthy, although.... heh.

 

.

 

Now Joe, you and I both know that's not "exactly" true. Depends on the type of "bottle of water" you are refering to. Yes, if you are refering to "drinking water", Ionized, reversed osmosised and coal filtered tap type, but mountain spring water, no, no , no.

 

Secondly Joe, if the water has topsoil in it, this includes dirt(aka topsoil), thus making the water dirt y. Filth, conversely, is something different. Dirty water can be filthy, filthy water based upon confirmed lab analysis may or may not have dirt or topsoil in it. Filthy water in bays tend to most commonly have high concentrations of bacteria, from storm drain effluent, bringing all sorts of terrestrial toxins in contact with water.

Edited November 12, 2011 by Desmond Jones

[joekicker 53]

Now Joe, you and I both know that's not "exactly" true.

 

One of us found out what is EXACTLY true. The other one doesn't want to know, won't ask, isn't curious, but still seems happy enough if unproductive on the subject.

 

"Mountain spring water", heh. Good one. Designed a label, did you?

 

.

[papillon 695]

So no storm water ends up in the Chao Phraya

[joekicker 53]

So no storm water ends up in the Chao Phraya clueless

 

Didn't say that. The flood water that stagnates in Bangkok and is pumped into the klongs goes into the river (and two other rivers) below Bangkok. What would you call it... "original" flood water pretty much *is* the Chao Phraya above Bangkok. It's flowing very fast (very fast) and doesn't *collect* filth like the stagnating waters in Bangkok.

 

Also. The flood waters in very flat Bangkok are pumped and they recede so slowly that most of the filth actually remains in Bangkok, sinking and settling on the streets, in houses, in fields as the actual water starts flowing south again.

 

Bangkok drinking water, where most of the Bangkok-area bottled-water companies get their water just like us consumers, comes from the river above Bangkok. It's actually taken into klongs FROM the river to various pumping, management and treatment plants. It's well tested, well managed and all. Here it is in real time. There's a lot of concern at flood time every year but so far there have NEVER been problems with waterborne disease. Knock on wood of course.

 

.

[papillon 695]

The Klongs are in Bangkok and they connect directly to the river in Bangkok, not downstream. The water is dirty, filthy.

 

I wasn't talking about upstream where the water is naturally purer.

[joekicker 53]

The Klongs are in Bangkok and they connect directly to the river in Bangkok, not downstream. The water is dirty, filthy.

 

Yet, you seem to have got past it even better than the flu, which knocked you into bed for a few weeks, total. You've coped well with this dirty, filthy water, or at least your body has, as has mine, as have all of ours, I suspect.

 

.

[Siam Sam 964]

fuck me ive swam in that cack

 

I did, once. This was to avoid capture from the Mrs after a soapy.

 

It's not going to affect Pattaya Beach or the water along the beach.

 

We are a fairly resiliant race, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

I'm not so sure about that paps, it all goes into the water that is a little too close to the beach for my liking.

[Desmond Jones 196]

One of us found out what is EXACTLY true. The other one doesn't want to know, won't ask, isn't curious, but still seems happy enough if unproductive on the subject.

 

"Mountain spring water", heh. Good one. Designed a label, did you?

 

.

 

Joe, hell no I'm not a label designer. "Drinking water" is treated tap water. "Mountain Spring Water" comes from mountain springs. It is unadulterated, has natural minerals and is far better for a person than treated bottled tap water which often is sterile possessing no minerals at all. In America, treated tap water cannot be called

"Spring" water by law. Arrowhead, Crystal Geyser are two examples of "Mountain Spring Water" bottled at the source.

 

And Joe, this is for informational purposes only, K? Please don't play the gotcha game with me....it's tiresome, and reflects poorly on you.

 

OBLA DEE BROS

[Siam Sam 964]

Joe, hell no I'm not a label designer. "Drinking water" is treated tap water. "Mountain Spring Water" comes from mountain springs. It is unadulterated, has natural minerals and is far better for a person than treated bottled tap water which often is sterile possessing no minerals at all. In America, treated tap water cannot be called

"Spring" water by law. Arrowhead, Crystal Geyser are two examples of "Mountain Spring Water" bottled at the source.

 

And Joe, this is for informational purposes only, K? Please don't play the gotcha game with me....it's tiresome, and reflects poorly on you.

 

OBLA DEE BROS

 

I agree. I'd rather drink the bottled water that comes from natural places and has been filtered through rocks. It's far superior, and you can taste it too. You pay that little extra for the privilege.

[joekicker 53]

Joe, hell no I'm not a label designer. "Drinking water" is treated tap water. "Mountain Spring Water" comes from mountain springs.

 

I guess I owe you a big apology, because you would NEVER play gotcha and I made the error of writing about water generally for sale in Thailand. I should have realised you were talking about California, what else would anyone who would never play gotcha be discussing on a Pattaya board in a thread about beaches and water in Pattaya?

 

Did you know that Arrowhead.... okay of course you do but probably lots of people don't know that Arrowhead (the water-peddling company) uses water from the municipal water supply of Livermore? Lake Arrowhead, California, Elevation 5,108 feet. You California people sure got big heads about "mountains". Hell, my little plot of America is higher than that, and it's in a CITY. When we go to the mountains, we go up from there. But I know your bigged-up low-lying foothills "spring water" from the city of Livermore is terrific. I've sure passed a lot of it, given it's so cheap. And I'm positive it must have some relation to this thread about Thailand beaches and water that you'll explain as you go along.

 

.

[papillon 695]

Yet, you seem to have got past it even better than the flu, which knocked you into bed for a few weeks, total. You've coped well with this dirty, filthy water, or at least your body has, as has mine, as have all of ours, I suspect.

 

.

Which is what I was saying in my first post

[papillon 695]

I'm not so sure about that paps, it all goes into the water that is a little too close to the beach for my liking.

There's a reason that the storm water outlet is not at the other end of the beach. I'm sure you can work it out.