Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Illegal pumping of raw groundwater for soapy massages blamed for subsidence.
SINKING FEELING Bangkok could be partly submerged by 2030 because ‘soapy massage’ brothels are stealing groundwater causing the city to SINK
Thai cops have raided several ‘mega-brothels’ in the low-lying city which they believe are illegally siphoning groundwater
By Mark Hodge
25th January 2018, 9:50 pmUpdated: 25th January 2018, 10:11 pm
BANGKOK’s mega-brothels are being blamed for the sinking of the city by cops who say the gaudy businesses are illegally stealing groundwater for “soapy massages”.
The crackdown was launched after a trafficking raid on Victoria Secret massage parlour found evidence the venue was siphoning water to avoid paying pricey utility bills.
Investigators also discovered underage sex workers at the business and a ledger listing bribes to authorities.
Environmental officials say the illegal tapping of water contributes to the sinking of Bangkok, a low-lying city built on the banks of the Chaophraya river.
Experts have warned that parts of Bangkok could be submerged by 2030, chiefly due to rising sea levels and the draining of groundwater in the capital’s swampy soil.
…
Efforts in recent years to regulate groundwater use have drastically slowed the city’s sinking rate from a peak of around 10cm a year in the late 1970s.
But the massage parlours’ breach of regulations has revealed yet another way in which notorious venues fail to be above board.
…
Read more: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5427300/bangkok-thailand-brothels-submerged-soapy-water/
Its difficult to quantify how much damage illegal groundwater pumping is causing. Groundwater pumping is believed to have caused up to 10cm / year subsidence in the 1970s, as opposed to sea level rise of a few mm per year, so the potential harm to city infrastructure from illegal pumping is substantial.
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What a downer, that sucks! /sarc
Just proves ‘it’s not the size of the boat, it’s the motion of the ocean’.
Don’t worry, this story will have a happy ending.
Algore would be jealous.
Bomber – but without the brothels the economy might sink! What a dilemma! 😉
Cheers
Roger
Surprising that Climate Change/Global Warming wasn’t mentioned once.
sorta they did….”chiefly due to rising sea levels and the draining of groundwater”
Of course it would kill them to put groundwater first………
“mega-brothels”….it’s like “extreme weather”….
It was implied that soapy bubble massages cause Climax Change. Increased warming, more frequent, more intense, faster rate of intensification… that kind of thing.
Loss of groundwater? I reckon it is the jackhammering effect of the mega brothels. Anyone who doesn’t subscribe to that is surely a ‘denier’.
Certainly nothing to do with climate change.
The whorehouse, that bribed public officials and utilized underage workers, was the subject of an investigation into to groundwater theft as it relates to avoiding utility bills.
(dig a little deeper and maybe find that the groundwater use was an outcome related to the government health department crackdown on their practice of soapy water reuse…. But if you call it a shit hole country i’ll pretend to be personally insulted and i’m gonna tell on you)
I’ll be in Bangkok on Friday. I’ll go and check.
We need a full report (research of course!)
Documentation of such field research should include photographs.
You’ll get a grant.
Heard from a friend – honestly.
The brothels have air mattresses along the hall. The couple take a mattress into the room and she fills the large tub with water they they precede to take a bath. After that it’s a massage on the air mattress.
It’s been well known for decades that Bangkok brothels are the largest users of water.
Watch out for Ladyboys!
Lady boys Bangkok.
And video, with narration.
Photos, or it didn’t happen.
Uhh…the correct internet bro phrase is “pics or it didn’t happen”. You must be an old fuddy duddy…
🙂
rip
What happens in Bangkok stays in Bangkok.
Hmm, Bangkok. There’s a joke in there, but I’m not man enough to go in and find it.
My God Almighty
Illegal pumping crimes…… at a brothel. In Thailand.
I’m shocked! Shocked, I tell you!!
Congratulations. In the context, there must be at least four ‘wrong’ interpretations to put into that sentence! I’ve been watching too much internet.
Hey, we’re not allowed to judge other cultural practices.
/sarc
Agreed, nowadays people would be defending garbage like Sati as cultural instead of judging it to immoral.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sati_(practice)
One just can’t make this stuff up! Sounds like it would be OK if they were to pump the soapy water (with who-knows-what in it) back into the water table. Might flavor the drinking water a bit but what the heck!
That would be an unusual form of fracking.
I was waiting for the story to have a happy ending
Nailed that one!
Just saw your post. 🙂
Couldn’t be the 8.3 million other people that live there. Nah couldn’t be that.
And the fact that tyhe city was built on a swamp…
Just like that other mega whore house: Washington DC.
Greg on January 31, 2018 at 12:51 am
Just like that other mega whore house: Washington DC
That’s not fair. Brothels give something back for your money.
About two million cubic meters of water are pumped from the aquifer every day. link That’s about seven or eight hundred million cubic meters per year. That’s around one hundred cubic meters per capita per year.
Thailand, as a whole, uses around eight hundred cubic meters per capita per year. Obviously most of Bangkok’s water comes from other sources, mainly rivers. There are issues like drought, but it shouldn’t be impossible to make all pumping from Bangkok’s aquifer illegal. The trick is to get real enforcement rather than just providing one more lever for corrupt officials to use to extract bribes.
One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can’t be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me
Siam’s gonna be the witness
To the ultimate test of cerebral fitness
This grips me more than would a
Muddy old river or reclining Buddha
: )
Might as well go the whole nine yards:
https://youtu.be/rgc_LRjlbTU
Hit that Dire Straits video if it’s showing up. It’s a live version of “Sultans of Swing” from 1985, and you have never seen guitar work like what Mark Knopfler puts on in this video. The drummer is exceptional too.
Sorry for the rock’n’roll interruption. Carry on everyone.
Global warming anxiety is obviously driving people to brothels.
As long as they aren’t being driven there in cars and trucks, there shouldn’t be a problem.
I was going to say much research required but now I’m not going to say that.
Must be the heavy breathing.
Lots of CO2 and all.
Climate change raises sea levels and turns women into prostitutes, then prostitutes increase groundwater usage and cause subsidence. Double-whammy.
Immensely vigilant Thai police might have found in the confiscated ledger the names of Mann, Gleick, Lewandowski et al who had ganged up on poor brothel workers to get the hockey stick further up.
…and a ledger listing bribes to authorities….
…with the last few weeks not filled in. Which was the reason for the raid….
I believe it was the elephant and giant Germans who caused the sinking. It can’t be those cute little girls and katoeys.
Less foreigners especially males and an assertive campaign against corrupt cops and officials.
Unlikely though.
Thailand is losing its charm rapidly.
Bangkok brothels going down is hardly news.
Progressive corruption and depravity is a first-order forcing of catastrophic anthropogenic cultural change and subsequent climate change.
I was in Bangkok in 1970 during the wet season, moored to a buoy in the river loading rice from barges. The city was knee deep in water; all the dolly bird secretaries tripped along the streets with their high heels in their hands on the way to lunch.
It happened every year and still does.
Any loss of ground water would be replenished from the river before any noticable sinking effect appeared.
Maybe just an excuse for the police to have a part …. er … carry out a raid.