A shocking fact shows that more than 60% of Thai people have already consumed polluted water before. Water pollution in Thailand has become more serious over the last few years. Although Thailand got significant economic improvements, water quality is still far below standard.
Clean water shortage creates several negative effects on agriculture, tourism and personal health.
Agriculture impact
When farmers use polluted water for planting crops, crops become polluted and this raises concern about food safety. Therefore, food poisoning can occur and also cause problem regarding export of Thai products.
Tourism impact
Smelly and polluted waters could definitely affect tourists’ confidence toward Thailand. Lack of beautiful landscape due to pollution will reduce the competitiveness of Thailand ‘s tourism among other Asia countries.
Health impact
Most importantly, people could suffer from diseases due to polluted water. Diseases such as dysentery, typhoid and leptospirosis could be spread through contaminated water. According to a national survey, almost 20% of Thai people have intestinal parasitic infection. This shows that polluted waters can bring some health concern.
Main Reasons
Water pollution in Thailand is caused by many reasons. However, the two main reasons are agriculture and industries. In 2016, around 14 billion cubic meters of wastewater from farms were discharged directly to rivers. In the same year, 6 billion cubic meters of polluted water from factories were produced.
Solutions
Undoubtedly, the most efficient way to limit water pollution is to reduce the discharge of contaminated water from farms and factories. In addition, more sewage treatment plants should be built to purify wastewater before it being released into rivers.
To sum it up, water pollution will become a more serious issue if no action is taken. Using less water and producing less wastewater is what citizens and the Thai government should start to do in order to improve things.
