Water quality getting worse in major rivers

The annual report, conducted by the the Pollution Control Department and released yesterday, showed the state of the environment in Thailand deteriorated in almost all aspects.

Scientists examined water quality in 48 major rivers and freshwater sources nationwide and found that 39% of the water sources were poor quality, increasing from 33% in 2009.

Wastewater discharge from residential, industrial and agricultural areas was still the main cause of water pollution in the Chao Phraya, Tha Chin, Yom and Nan rivers as well as on Songkhla Lake, the report says.

For the waste problem, the amount of household rubbish totalled 15.16 million tonnes in 2010, only a slight increase of 50 kilogrammes from the 2009 record. Bangkok residents generated about 8,766 tonnes of garbage while Thais generated an average of 0.65 kilogramme a day per person.

About 3.91 million tonnes of the total amount of garbage, or 26%, was reused, the study found.

Air pollution has also continued to deteriorate, especially in Bangkok, where excessive amounts of volatile organic compounds have been detected. For example, Din Daeng has dangerously high amounts of 1,3-Butadiene, Rama IV Road and Chulalongkorn Hospital carry high levels of chloroform, while excessive amounts of benzene were found at all air-quality monitoring stations in Bangkok.