I don't understand why they can't stop temporary flooding in Hua Hin. The only reason there could be is that... when given a chunk of change to fix it - most of it goes in 'Hua Hin Big People' people's pockets. Or maybe there's another reason.
Where I am now, a place surrounded by nature and rivers, people talk about the great flood of '47...
1947-ban-pong-ratchaburi-flooding.jpg (180.29 KiB) Viewed 1967 times
Yet now, almost 70 years later, after a few very heavy downpours that I've witnessed recently (this afternoon being one - 2 hour heavy downpour) - nothing remains. I mean nothing. Not even a puddle (*WARNING* POSSIBLE EXAGGERATION MAY HAVE OCCURRED). The place remains like an English town after downpours...
2348823-Ban_Pong_clock_tower_July_25_2003_Ban_Pong_2.jpg (67.39 KiB) Viewed 1967 times
So why does Hua Hin have such trouble with water, especially flash floods, during the raining season?
Oh right, I forgot...
It's because every bugger and his brother are ripping down each natural square meter and whacking cement blocks in its place to make a quick buck.
"The Over-Development of Hua Hin and the Consequences"
Well, Soi 102 has always been a flood risk area and there has been so much development there since 1999, the risk was always going to increase. It has taken until now, to put in a pump to alleviate the problem!!! Will it work? TIT who knows.
As to the "Consequences" well, the whole of Hua Hin is being concreted over and it ain't going to stop any time soon, but with the water supply and other problems, due to the lack of the correct infrastructure, maybe time to move on to pastures new.
Surely there has to be some breaking point in Hua Hin?
Mountains collapsing due to it flooding at the bottom rather than flowing out to sea. Roads collapsing due to poor build and too much weight (I think BB showed in another post that that has already happened). Fish and other ocean life becoming scarce in the area to meet the needs of too many. Crime becoming rampant due to over-developing areas while using poorly paid workers to do the building. Water outages due to over population (hang on... )
GLC, we know you don't live here anymore, and I wonder if you bother visiting either. Compare the infrastructure now to when you used to play pool with my son all those years ago. Things are vastly improving. Yes, there are teething problems with some projects, but what projects worldwide don't suffer snagging issues? It is called progress. What city anywhere in Thailand hasn't expanded rapidly in recent using concrete?
I would hope most mountains flood at the bottom. It would be an island if it flooded at the top I'm not aware of this collapsing mountain - where was it?
Yes, a sink hole appeared on Soi 102, but it was rectified very quickly, and as far as I know, there has been no re-appearance. I use the road regularly, and don't have to rely on my car's inbuilt snorkel. The road surface is good compared with many other roads in Thailand.
Are you sure that your brownie hasn't taken you on a trip back through time about 10 years?
GLC, we know you don't live here anymore, and I wonder if you bother visiting either.
I lived there for five years and have continued to holiday there every year, some years many occasions, others less, for a further 6 years. I think I'm in a position to speak...
Here are a few pictures of 'progress' AKA over-development.
The first one is what Hua Hin's beaches looked like in a better time. The following is what happened to it. Fortunately the army are in the process of stopping Hua Hin's beaches becoming 'the land of beached whales' by taking away deck chairs and demolishing the restaurants on the beach. Only time will tell if they can really bring beauty back to the beaches.
old beach.jpg (7.38 KiB) Viewed 1897 times
new beach.JPG (50.66 KiB) Viewed 1897 times
The next was of the buildings along the beach ,and the surrounding area, with the picture of what it looks like now.
old beachfront.jpg (99.61 KiB) Viewed 1897 times
New Beachfront.JPG (10.78 KiB) Viewed 1897 times
So how long until Hua Hin falls apart by trying to expand beyond what it's capable of? How much longer until you see no green at all in the picture below?
The Death of Hua Hin.jpg (78.53 KiB) Viewed 1897 times
So what is different in Hua Hin, compared to any other Thai city? In fact I think Hua Hin is taking great strides towards rectifying any consequences.
Maybe it would make it easier to understand if you concentrated on specifics rather than a broad based Hua Hin, together with what improvements you would like to see.
Still waiting to hear about the collapsed mountain.
"The Over-Development of Hua Hin and the Consequences"
Well, Soi 102 has always been a flood risk area and there has been so much development there since 1999, the risk was always going to increase. It has taken until now, to put in a pump to alleviate the problem!!! Will it work? TIT who knows.
As to the "Consequences" well, the whole of Hua Hin is being concreted over and it ain't going to stop any time soon, but with the water supply and other problems, due to the lack of the correct infrastructure, maybe time to move on to pastures new.
DalmationDave said...
Well after seeing the pipe burst while sitting at Bobbys bar and the subsequent days of devastating damage to the foundations of the road and surrounding area it is very easy to understand why prospective buyers of the buildings on the south side of 102 would have wished to walk away.
Days later the conversations were that the hole was getting larger and subsidence must be having an impact on the integrity of the entrances to that building. The hole was right to the doorways of the building, one almost expected the building to disappear into that hole.
Have you looked at the rest of Thailand? Many areas seem to flood for weeks/months on end. Cities are reportedly sinking into the sea, roads collapse into rivers, etc.
I might be proved wrong, but don't you think you're being a bit of a drama queen about the fate of Hua Hin? Maybe all this worrying is causing you needless stress and making your eye twitch.
I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean by "breaking point", but one of the reasons Hua Hin has/had a tendency to flood (and rarely to any real depth) is that it is only just above sea level, when the tide is coming in you can see the water in the drains on Soi 61 (the road to the beach) actually run towards the west when the tide is coming in (that is when you can find a drain cover that hasn't been covered over) so in the event of heavy rains meeting a rising or high tide, there is nowhere for the rain water to go. This is somewhat exacerbated by the fact that Hua Hin has no river to speak of and the canal, which does have a reasonable capacity is totally clogged up with water weeds, rubbish and silt. The canal eventually drains out the the Khao Takieb 'river' and again when the tide is high, the flow of run off meets the sea and simply overflows into the Nong Khae area.
Ban Pong on the other hand has the natural benefit of being some 16 metres above sea level and has the Mae Klong river to discharge it's run-off into.
The nature of the rainfall pattern here as you may know is none, none, none, none, a months worth in two hours, none, none, none and so on, with Hua Hin catching nearly a metre of rain per year condensed into about 200 hours of rainfall it's rather difficult to imagine infrastructure projects cost/benefit falling on the benefit side. Compare that with Manchester UK, they get a similar amount of annual rainfall but it's evenly spread across the year with some 2000 hours of rainfall and yet experienced severe flooding as recently as 2012.
Thailands population has pretty much stopped growing, with a fertility rate of only 1.6 or thereabouts, the reason for the current population growth is due to life expectancy getting much higher, people are not dying so young therefore newborns are not replacing old people, they are joining them increasing the overall population but again to compare Thailand to the UK (which have similar overall populations) Thailand has about 130 people per square Kilometre, the UK has about twice that (260) and if you take only England it's about 410. To put that into perspective, Singapore, not what you'd call a run-down third-world banana republic with no infrastructure has over 7000 people per square Kilometre and Singapore suffered severe flooding between 2010 and 2013, and then there's Macau at about three times the density of Singapore. Thailand has a lot of room for expanding, even though the population isn't.
Crime becoming rampant? Well that's hard to say, I think you'll need to show some small degree of evidence that crime has increased more than the growth of the town. Crime is obviously related to buildings, housing etc. because that's where people and things are so, naturally, there will be more crime where there are more buildings, not a lot of crime happens in a paddy field.
I don't know much about the fish but apparently Thai fishing boats are now only landing 14% of what they were doing in the 1960's, probably due to an increase in number of boats and a decrease in number of fish. Seafood production has remained level at about 3 million tonnes since the mid-90's but whereas in the mid-90's all 3 million tonnes were wild caught, now 1/3rd is grown in aquaculture environments. There's a reason why the government made some efforts at 'cleaning up the fisheries'; 90% of seafood production is exported to the USA, if that export market was cut-off the fisheries and aquaculture business (who feed their farmed product with wild caught sea-life) would crash almost overnight; good news for the fish, not so good for people.
So what can you do about it?
Over-development & Flooding : Stop coming to Hua Hin. Every visit you make to Hua Hin increases demand, with increased demand comes more supply (i.e. more building not only to house the demand but to service it as well).
Population Growth : Become celibate, that will ensure that you do not add to the population. Don't give to charity, don't help people who are sick, withhold your tax payments, don't take out health insurance and don't go to the doctor or to a hospital. There is always the option of reducing the population by one as well.
Crime : Don't accumulate wealth or belongings, if you have nothing you have nothing to steal. As for violence against the person, you may well have to commit to a life of solitude but in the event you are attacked make sure you kill your attacker(s) in self-defence thus assisting in the reduction of the population.
Fish : Don't eat fish, don't eat food that's been raised using fish by products which includes, directly, chicken/ducks/pigs/prawns and almost all vegetables, fruits and grains. Don't eat beef either, beef is raised with additional feeds made from vegetables/fruits/grains that have been grown using fish by product fertiliser. Become self-sufficient and only eat what you can grow without using pesticides or fertilisers. Eating road-kill could be acceptable as long as you understand that in doing so you may be depriving huge numbers of ants and/or flies their only source of food and that you may be contributing to a localised extinction event by disrupting their food chain.
Hua Hin is hardly over-developed. Just look at places like phuket, pattaya, etc. Cities are growing all across the world but thankfully Hua Hin remains a well balanced town with some problems but retains its character. Not sure where you live in the U.S. GLC but perhaps look at the problems closer to your home
)
I'm not aware of this collapsing mountain - where was it?
