Water pollution in Thailand will soon affect more than 4.44 million if quick action isn't taken, reports Greenpeace Southeast Asia.

“This can be traced back to careless emphasis on economic growth in the 20th century as well as the Thai culture of 'sabai sabai,' which translates as 'take it easy -- no worries,'” said Patcharapol Limpiyawon, former Greenpeace new media project leader and Bangkok resident.

The report said that water pollution is putting 92.68 percent of the total area in Thailand at risk and classifies 6.87 percent of this area as "high risk." The World Bank ranks Thailand lowest in Asia for annual per capita water availability but 14th in the world for industrial organic water pollution.

Greenpeace's 2009 campaign centers on the protection of clean water sources, particularly the Chao Phraya River, Thailand's main source of water. The 140-mile river flows through Bangkok, the kingdom's capital, and into the gulf of Thailand.

The province of Bangkok relies heavily on the Chao Phraya. Formerly known as the “Venice of the East,” because of its many water canals, USAID Thailand reported that the capital was transformed by its untreated waste and pollution.

Bangkok has changed from being largely dependent on water to a place devoid of clean water, Ply Pirom, Greenpeace Southeast Asia toxics campaigner, said. Pirom has a master's degree in Urban Environmental Management and dealt with several of Bangkok's environmental issues in his thesis. He works with Greenpeace to raise public awareness about pollution, improve pollution control legislation and promote legislation to protect clean water sources.

"We hardly see clean water in Bangkok, all canals are black. The state of water quality of the Chao Phraya River in the Bangkok area is considerably poor," Pirom said via e-mail. "People no longer have excess to good quality natural resources. We have to travel far outside of Bangkok to find natural resources."

Pirom said that the canals were created at the development of the city for irrigation, water supply and transportation. The development of 20th-century roads, housing and commercial buildings turned them into dumping grounds, fit only for transportation.

John Pasch, USAID regional adviser for Water and Sanitation, explained that Thailand has the technological capacity to treat and manage its wastewater but an effective business model to fund domestic treatment has not been established. He added that many have not been active about wastewater because they don't see it affecting their everyday lives. This ignorance and apathy has made it increasingly difficult to develop domestic treatment.

“Because the environmental effects are not obvious and emergent in the eyes of most Bangkok residents (they have access to cheap tap water and a lot of bottled drinking water), most of them would have a perception that the water resource is abundant and thus not a serious issue,” Limpiyawon said.

"The government must give importance to the issue, improve and enforce the laws, monitor and support the communities to take care of and access to their water resources," Pirom said.

Nick Caras, CaliBaja Manufacturing Services sales director, said that one effect of the poor environmental state has been eco-conscious companies moving their production out of the country. One of his clients recently moved production to a facility in Mexico because of Thailand’s conditions.

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