Unsustainable Dumpsite Waste Management (Hua Hin, Thailand)
Hua Hin could be easily characterized by its vast blue sky, healthy green shades throughout the year and natural fresh air. However, as convincing as it might seem, the town is just another victim of Unsustainable Waste Management that is slowly damaging its water, air, soil and even our healths.
We often remind ourselves not to judge a book by its cover. While it usually describes people, the same actually goes to the environment we are living in.
Last year, my friends and I visited the main Dumpsite in Hua Hin for a University project, and what I witnessed was way beyond what I had expected. Despite being fully aware of the plastic wastes issues on the beaches, I have never thought that the problem would continue from there to the Waste Management system. As someone who had lived in this beautiful town for the past 2 years, the lack of visible impacts in my surrounding (other than the plastic polluted beaches) had convinced me of its sustainability. However, I was wrong.
The Dumpsite of Hua Hin, which is located near Soi 112, has created multiple environmental problems in the local area and population due to its lack of proper management. This Dumpsite, along with many other smaller sites are where all the households and industrial wastes of Hua Hin collected. In the year 2016, BangkokPost had once addressed this issue in an article, that revealed several complaints from the residents, particularly farmers whose crops and fish were infected by the water pollution. (Chaiwat , 2016). However, in the year 2018 nothing had specifically improved.
Upon arriving at the site, stench of trashes immediately alerted me. Several wastes scattered randomly across the grassy land that was visibly damaged by the leachate that was leaking out from a path damped with muds. This reddish brown liquid flowed in a narrow current towards the small stream of clear water, which flowed into the surrounding.
Curious of the source of this leachate, we decided to explore the path. Holding our breaths, we secured our footing by stepping on the woods and stones etc. that were laid along the path. The mountain that seemed normal at a distance, now appeared as a giant pile of wastes. In other words, a whole mountain covered in wastes! Stray dogs roamed around the areas collecting wastes for foods.
From these observations, the environmental problems that could be listed out included water and air pollution caused by leachate and greenhouse gas. As the wastes in the Dumpsites decompose, they produce toxins that seep into the soil. When water passes through the soil, especially after rain, the toxins filter into the water, creating leachate that is highly poisonous. This wastewater could cause great damages to the soil, land and also the crops that feed on it. Our health issue should not be discounted from the possibility as well, since these waste products could also result in the leaching of heavy metal such as arsenic, lead and mercury etc., which are often found in electronic products such as television and computers etc. When these materials get wash off into the soil and water, it will eventually reach the crops and the people who later consume them. High concentration of heavy metal (not the music genre) in the body can cause poisoning, which can damage the nervous system and eventually kill a person.
As a non-science student, I couldn’t give further scientific information without additional research in the topic. However, even with my limited knowledge in this area I can tell how dangerous this situation is. This gives us one more reason why we need to reduce the usage of plastic and learn to reuse and recycle old things before throwing them away.
Again, don’t judge a book by its cover. A beautiful environment is not the equivalent of a green environment.
Bibliography
Chaiwat , S. (2016, March 29). Hua Hin residents raise stink over polluting trash dump. Retrieved October 22, 2018, from Bangkok Post: https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/environment/914505/hua-hin-residents-raise-stink-over-polluting-trash-dump.
Environment Victoria. (2013, June 16). The problem with landfill. Retrieved October 22, 2018, from Environment Victoria: https://environmentvictoria.org.au/resource/problem-landfill/
Freudenrich , C. (n.d.). How Landfills work. Retrieved October 22, 2018, from How stuff works: https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/landfill4.htm
Newton, J. (2018, April 19). The Effects of Landfills on the Environment. Retrieved October 22, 2018, from Sciencing: https://sciencing.com/effects-landfills-environment-8662463.html
