Pattaya is planning to revamp its entire sewage-transport system to split condos and large commercial buildings from small homes and businesses to prevent the types of overflows that have fouled local beaches this year.
Speaking at the July 11 Pattaya Business & Tourism Association meeting, Sewage Management Department Director Sompope Wandee said a budget will be requested for the system overhaul that should prevent spills like those this year on both Pattaya and Najomtien beaches.
The lingering Najomtien sewage overflow affecting the beach from Soi 17 to the Pupen restaurant has been blamed on the Sattahip sub-district’s lack of a waste-treatment plant and broken pumps.
The Pattaya Sanitation Department offered to funnel the sewage to its Soi Wat Boonsamphan sewage-treatment plant if Najomtien linked its pipes to the city’s. But sub-district officials dragged their feet, prolonging the pollution and smell.
Sompope said the connection has now been completed and will continue until Najomtien fixes its pumps.
South Pattaya Beach also has been fouled with sewage twice this year due to flooding overflows and broken pumps.
The long-term solution, Sompope said, is to separate major sewage producers from smaller ones. Engineers already are drafting plans to have waste from large commercial buildings, hotels and condominium towers travel via different pipes than those to residential homes and small businesses. In addition, storm runoff will have its own dedicated drainage pipes.
The result, Sompope said, would be that flooding no longer would result in sewage backing up on to the streets and onto beaches.
However, he added that Pattaya is also considering requiring hotels, large condos and major polluters to install their own sewage-treatment equipment to ease the burden on city infrastructure.
At this stage the new sewage system is just plans on paper. Nothing will happen without government funding, which Pattaya hopes to secure sometime in the future.
