Klong Cong Nonsi

[reader]

From Bangkok Post

Construction work has begun on the first section of the 4.5km Klong Chong Nonsi canal park which will open on Dec 25. Thana Boonlert

Once known as the Venice of the East, Bangkok has seen its vast network of rivers winding through the capital vanish due to urban development. Construction has filled in klongs (canals) for roads and houses and the remaining waterways have become neglected and clogged with rubbish.

However, the sound of pile drivers is once again pounding in the heart of the withering city. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is reviving canals and surrounding areas to increase clean water access and green space. Five pilot projects are expected to open by the end of this year.

"I remember going to school and passing Klong Lot and Klong Phadung. I remember seeing people empty their bowels, wash dishes, and sell goods along the same canal. Urban development has overlooked waterways," Pongsakorn Kwanmuang, the BMA spokesman, told the press. "Canals are treated like sewers."

City authorities have been trying to improve the condition of waterways, including those in the central business district. Inspired by the Cheonggyecheon Restoration Project in Seoul, they are building Klong Chong Nonsi canal park, which flows into the Chao Phraya River. It will open on Dec 25.

Once finished, the first section of the 4.5km Klong Chong Nonsi canal park will feature trees and water plants. Photo courtesy of Kotchakorn Voraakhom

Pongsakorn said the new public space will use the pipe jacking method to carry wastewater to a treatment station and flush clean water to Klong Chong Nonsi. "Then, it will flow into Klong Sathorn, Lumpini Park, Klong Paisingto, Klong Tonson, and Klong Toey," he said.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/life/social-and-lifestyle/2207371/giving-new-life-to-canals

[PeterRS]

A great project! Too many of the remaining old klongs are just an eyesore.

Lest anyone think the disappearance of the klongs in the 1950s and 60s was purely a Thai idea, it took as a result of reports from supposedly expert overseas consultants!

[TMax]

Good to see and hope they continue it on with other klongs, it's going to look fantastic when finished 

[Guest]

16 hours ago, TMax said:

it's going to look fantastic when finished 

If it's well built AND well maintained, it will look good.      That's no certainty for Thai public projects.

[fedssocr]

that seems like a pretty tight timetable, but Bangkok seems to have been adding a lot of parks lately along with all of the new transportation projects.

[macaroni21]

The Cheonggyecheon stream has two advantages which the Chong Nonsi canal does not have. The first is that Cheonggyecheon stream runs down a slight incline, thus the water is never stagnant, and running water has a very soothing effect. The second advantage is that the stream sits in a bit of a valley about 6 metres below the road level on either side. So, when one is walking alongside the stream, one is physically cut off from the parallel roads, and traffic noise is reduced.

In addition to the maintenance issue that z909 has referred to, I also doubt if Thais have the same social discipline as Koreans not to keep putting trash into waterways. Even if those appreciating the park demonstrate that discipline, thousands more upstream of it may not. As a poorer society, more of them spend their lives or carry out businesses on the street. This makes the burden and cost of cleaning and maintenance higher.

I wonder as well if they're going to create more pedestrian crossings from the sidewalks along Narathiwat Road, otherwise it will be difficult and dangerous to get to the proposed park. But then, creating pedestrian crossings will annoy drivers -- the hi so on which most Thai governments depend on for support.

 

 

[reader]

3 hours ago, macaroni21 said:

 I also doubt if Thais have the same social discipline as Koreans not to keep putting trash into waterways. Even if those appreciating the park demonstrate that discipline, thousands more upstream of it may not. As a poorer society, more of them spend their lives or carry out businesses on the street. This makes the burden and cost of cleaning and maintenance higher.

I doubt that many westerns have the same social discipline as the Thais or the Koreans.

Just because that many may be poor, I wouldn't be so quick to assume that they'll automatically be tossing their trash in the water. The poor are just as capable of appreciating the beauty of comfort of a park-like environment as the wealthy. Thousands use Lumpini park every day and you don't see them throwing their refuse in the pond.

[macaroni21]

I am not referring to the users of parks, who may indeed include those less well off. I am referring to the street vendors, food cart operators and ordinary folks living in squatter colonies some miles from the proposed Chong Nonsi Park.  Have you seen food sellers pour away unfinished soup into drains and wash their utensils by the side of same drains? I have, all the time. Have you seen toy vendors throw plastic wrap onto the ground, which then gets blown into drains? I have. Have you ever had a hard time finding a rubbish bin so that you can throw away your empty drink can responsibly? I am sure many of us have.

When the municipality fails to provide basic sanitation amenities (clean water and sewage connections for squatters, to begin with) people do what they must. And then all that stuff drifts down canals and khlongs to the same parks that city planners imagine.

I am not pointing moral fingers at those who have no choice but to live on the sidewalk or carry on their trades there. I am just stating a reality of poverty. But the downstream reality that follows is that somebody then has to take care of the rubbish in the waterways.

I don't know how many board members have taken the Khlong Saen Saeb boat starting from near Pratunam and that goes all the way eastwards to Lat Phrao and Bangkapi. If you have you would have noticed the water - seated on the boat, you'd just be 30 cm from the virually black surface - and kept your fingers crossed you don't fall into it. Even being splashed would be most unwelcome.

[Ruthrieston]

A lovely project, and great to see efforts towards a more green environment. In Pattaya what I cannot understand is the now constant cutting down of trees and greenery on empty plots of land, which apparently has something to do with the avoidance of some kind of land tax. I have seen so many mature, beautiful trees being chopped down and the land left bare in recent times. Sad.

[PeterRS]

16 hours ago, reader said:

Just because that many may be poor, I wouldn't be so quick to assume that they'll automatically be tossing their trash in the water

I am sure in general that assumption is perfectly correct. Equally I have seen hundreds - many hundreds - of instances where it is not always true. Tossing trash is far more common in certain countries than we might consider appropriate. One reason is pure tradition. How many times in Bangkok have you seen people unwrap a small food item from a 7 11 only to toss away the wrapping? Or a cigarette butt? If you have been brought up where throwing away trash of any sort is virtually the norm, you don't think much about it.

Another is the relative lack of trash bins on sois and main roads. In my experience, those you can find are almost invariably full to overflowing. We know from the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority that klongs get filled up with garbage and which has to be cleared each year. Someone is throwing that garbage into the klongs!

To me it is almost similar to what those of us from the west might regard as rude. I have completely lost count of the number of times I have walked in to a building and a Thai in front of me has not bothered to hold the door open for me. When I hold a door open for anyone, I can count on one hand the times I have been thanked by a Thai for my gesture. It is just not the custom. Then there is the queue jumping. Last week I was meeting an old friend for coffee at Central Embassy shortly after it opened at 10:00. Having got there early, there was a small queue waiting for the 10:00 opening. I walked around until just before 10:00 when I joined the longer queue. Seconds later a Lexus drove up and the driver opened the door for a lady in the back seat. She looked at the queue and then promptly walked to the very front. In some other countries, someone in the queue would have pointed out that she should go to the end of the queue. In Thailand that is not done if you know that queue jumper is clearly of a higher social status.

10 hours ago, macaroni21 said:

I don't know how many board members have taken the Khlong Saen Saeb boat starting from near Pratunam and that goes all the way eastwards to Lat Phrao and Bangkapi. If you have you would have noticed the water - seated on the boat, you'd just be 30 cm from the virually black surface - and kept your fingers crossed you don't fall into it. Even being splashed would be most unwelcome.

I have taken it many times. Not just the dank water. There is almost always trash floating around.

[reader]

This started as a post about a great project and has digressed into a discussion of lack of social discipline and bad habits of Thais. Less we forget, these are the same people some of us come half way around the world to be among.

Maybe some of us come from places with crystal clear rivers, pristine streets and impeccably behaved citizens. If so, they'd be fools to leave such a paradise.

Bangkok may not be perfect but I'm more than happy to take it just as it was when I last left, nasty water and all.

 

 

 

 

[PeterRS]

21 hours ago, reader said:

This started as a post about a great project and has digressed into a discussion of lack of social discipline and bad habits of Thais. Less we forget, these are the same people some of us come half way around the world to be among.

Maybe some of us come from places with crystal clear rivers, pristine streets and impeccably behaved citizens. If so, they'd be fools to leave such a paradise.

Bangkok may not be perfect but I'm more than happy to take it just as it was when I last left, nasty water and all.

With respect you are taking this a step too far. Ever poster has agreed with the basic comment in the OP's news clip about this being a great project. Period! But it is perfectly usual for threads to develop. In this case, it is the comments made in the OP news clip which @readerposted (it was a newspaper clip, let's recall, not the opinion of a poster) that has led to comments about social habits. And the matter of habits is a perfectly natural follow-on given what the BMA spokesman is quoted in that clip as having said. This was -

"Canals are treated like sewers."

That is not about the past. It is about the present. That has nothing about posters to this thread. It is from the BMA.

I have lived in Bangkok for 20 years. I am perfectly happy to have taken it as it is. That does not mean I like everything about it. I doubt if there is any city in the world where I would like everything. Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei, Singapore and other cities are certainly cleaner, but I chose not to live there.

[reader]

9 hours ago, PeterRS said:

I have lived in Bangkok for 20 years. I am perfectly happy to have taken it as it is. That does not mean I like everything about it. I doubt if there is any city in the world where I would like everything. Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei, Singapore and other cities are certainly cleaner, but I chose not to live there.

I agree that you've made a wise choice.