fire!
http://www.2bangkok.com/images/fire01.jpg
river
http://www.touring.dk/Fotogalleri/Thailand/images/PC071112.jpg

Saw something on TV the other day about how a M. Haussmann re-built Paris, destroying medieval 'slums' that were filthy and unorganized and built boulevards and avenues. Maybe Bangkok should get such a renovation?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussmann%27s_renovation_of_Paris

Setting other people's houses on fire?? What kind of a renovation is that?
Well.. this is the price we pay for not having efficient urban planning.

mayb the fire is from leaf/garbage burning...............
i hate when people do that............

Setting other people's houses on fire?? What kind of a renovation is that?
Well.. this is the price we pay for not having efficient urban planning.

Were you referring to my reply? If so, I wasn't suggesting we burn their houses. As in the case of Paris, property was actually expropriated....

^^ Not to your reply specifically but to such idea in general. It's immoral.

In truth , we have to admit that there are many slums in Bkk. Slum causes many problems such as criminal , life quality. We can't get rid of them because there are
many people live there ans ther are poverty people too. I've heard that this goverment will build a low cost home/flat instead of those slum. Hope it would be true
not just a dream.

bkk should be to slove just make for people have a greath life exam study,preservation better

It's not easy to makes BKK or other huge cities in the developing countries or even in developed countries get rid of slums.

Some causes may built from not appropriate urban planning of BKK or many people from every regions and directions move into BKK without preparation.

As we know this is not new problems and have been a long period of time. I believe these problems will be solve soon but that need to put the right man in the right job and give them a time. ;)

fire!
http://www.2bangkok.com/images/fire01.jpg


2 years ago there're a great fire blast over the whole resettlement community within a minutes and now the site is back on reconstruction gradually

Before FIRE

http://i1.tinypic.com/xpd8ah.jpg

AND NOW

http://i3.tinypic.com/xpd9ue.jpg

The Onnuj Street garbage mountain in Bangkok provides income for the city's slum dwellers who sort and sell the trash.
Photo credit: Sanitsuda Ekachai
http://www.ehponline.org/members/1996/104-12/thaiwoman.trash.JPG

With growing wealth, Bangkok is generating more solid waste and has outstripped the capacity of its daily collection services. The city's treatment plants are overwhelmed with more than 4,000 tons of solid waste each day; the city's largest dumpsite at Onnuj receives 2,000 tons daily, five times the capacity of its incinerator, according to environmental journalist Sanitsuda Ekachai's 1994 book Seeds of Hope. The rest is left in the open to decompose near the homes of about 140 families.

But the main danger is the growing discharge of hazardous waste, most of it from industry and hospitals. In 1994, Thailand's industrial plants churned out an estimated 360,000 tons of hazardous waste, mainly heavy metal sludges and solids (30%) and acidic wastes (29%). The concentration of three-quarters of these factories close to Bangkok's dense population intensifies the dangers of exposure to toxins. The World Bank has estimated that for 1991, infectious waste from hospitals totaled nearly 76,000 tons. In 1995, Thailand had only one hazardous waste treatment facility, which alone could not handle the volume of waste produced.

http://www.hiromiyazawa.com/stock/Images/15010252.jpg

^^^That's such an unbelievable living condition. I am really sad to see it.

^^^^ .........agree.......
i think the gov should rebulid those houses for them............

^ Easy wishing.

It's sad to see pitiful living conditions of those slum dwellers.
I think the solution to this problem is more complex than just razing the whole communities aground and building new public housing estates. Often, it's not only a matter of physical transformation, we're dealing with people, social impact, displacement of communities.

I think any redevelopment has to be a gradual process. Government must lead the way.. setting good examples.
The first step is improving basic sanitation, then building social capitals (schools, libraries, hospitals etc) - which will 'empower' the local community to try to help themselves. Citizens must be informed of any redevelopment process
Then we should involve the community in the planning process, setting vision.. ensure a sense of ownership of whatever will be built in the end.

FYI here's an interesing article on Kampung improvement program in Jakarta (Kampung = Malay word which refers to an informal settlement, similar to slum). This program had been quite successful. I think some of the Kampung improvement initiatives could be applied to Bangkok:

http://wwwistp.murdoch.edu.au/publications/e_public/Case%20Studies_Asia/kip/kip.htm

.

I found a research in 2002 by Chala's architecher student who studied in master

degree.


He told that slum problem in Thailand very hard to solve because of when the

government needs to move them. The slum community will againts by provide

many conditions to the government. Such as, The new place must near the

slum, The new rent must same the last price.


And now, All slum in Thailand very strong because of they are collect all member

to a community in that area. So you can see all slum in Thailand calls Chumchon

( ชุมชน ) but they do not call the slum. ( สลัม )


The good example of case study is Dindang slum. The Korean company would like

to building the new condominiums and renew Dindang area in 1999. But the poor people

who lives in Dindang did not want to move. In 2004, They had a condition to Bangkok's

goverment for the new renting.


To day the project stop and Korean company gone...............

.

^^^In a democratic country everyone enjoy equal rights.. even slum dwellers. ;) But yeh some slum dwellers can be a pain in the bum like people who own their home and think they own everything.
Some just want it all, but they can't have it all. A compromise is you win some you lose some :)

Speaking of Din Daeng, I remember there's a lot of 4-5 storey flats built by National Housing Authority in the late 1970s. From memory those flats are very run down and there were talks of rebuilding them. I wonder if it's the same project which attracted interests from the Korean construction company?

^ I understand the democratic principle, yet, slum dwellers often illegally trespass.......that is a pain in the bum

ถ้าไม่พายก็อย่าเอาเท้าราน้ำ

Interesting article:

Showcasing innovative housing solutions for Thai slum dwellers
Bangkok, 1 July 2005 - In a joint effort to share housing solutions for the urban poor, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and UN-HABITAT this week showcased a new initiative in Thailand aimed at improving the lives of slum dwellers.

http://www.unhabitat.org/images/thai22005.jpg


At a three-day meeting, organized by the two agencies, 20 government and civil society representatives from Cambodia, Mongolia, Nepal and Timor-Leste, discussed in detail how they deal with urban poverty at home with a view to sharing experiences and learning from one another.

They saw at first hand in a visit to Udon Thani north of Bangkok how plans are underway to improve four low-income communities as part of the Udon Thani Cities Without Slums Initiative.

Together with the Community Organizations Development Initiative (CODI) of the Government of Thailand, the Udon Thani Municipality has embarked on an ambitious initiative whereby the four communities have partnered with municipal officials in identifying all slums and squatter settlements in the town, and drawn up action plans for their improvement within a period of five years. The project supports a community-led and managed approach. The people themselves, the Udon Thani Municipality and CODI, provide funding for the upgrading of infrastructure.

source: http://www.unhabitat.org/thai_slum_dwellers_2005.asp

Thai Breakthrough

Dear Friends,

Just to inform you that finally the Thai Government have approved 4 year
upgrading plan to be implemented in 200 cities during 2005-2008 targetting
to upgrade and develop community housing in 2000 communities reaching
300,000 families. It is a city-wide "Cities Without Slums" housing
development process by communities and municipalities and city development
agencies where communities will be the key actors and owners of the project
to plan and develop the whole upgrading and housing process collectively.
Thai Government will provide total subsidy of about 19,300 million Baht (470
million US$) to CODI for the program. CODI will provide housing loans to
communities from CODI revolving Fund and will link and try to transfer to
the Banks to take over community loans later on.

It is expected that this total subsidy by government (average about 1,650
US$ per unit which include infrastructure and all social economic
facilities, local and all central management and administrative cost, 2%
interest rate subsidy and all expense about capacity building, learning,
meetings, seminars, exposure trips,etc.,.) will share about 25-30% of total
investment cost in which communities will be responsible for about
60-65%(mostly for housing loans and labour contributions) and the local
authorities about 10%. This total investment is, in deed, believed to be
able to generate related economic activities of about 3-4 times.

To reach this huge scale in 4 year which could be amount to about half of
existing slums in the country, it is therefore, designed to work out at
city-wide process in which all the existing slums in the city will all be
included and work together with city authorities to survey, set up saving
groups, plan for upgrading, negotiate or search for alternative land
together, organize various city task forces to assist each other
communities, link with universities,etc. so that each city should be able to
come up with plan of upgrading covering all existing slums in the city
within a period of about 3 year for each city simultaneously. So all
related development actors in the city, particularly communities will all be
workers and participants and observers, learners, advisers to whole city
active upgrading activities. The holistic upgrading elements include
changing land tenure status for secure and collective lease or ownership,
replanning of existing community, housing improvement or reconstruction,
environment development such as family waste water treatment, community
recycle system, growing plants and garden, community facility building,
economic generation area or activities, community welfare system, house of
the elderly or very poor persons, etc.,. It is not mere physical upgrading
as such but whole lot of physical and social upgrading managed by community
people together.

Since 2003 in which first 10 upgrading projects was approved uptill July
2005, we have now working in about 130 cities/ districts in about 55
provinces (total 76 provinces in the country). A total number of 175
projects have been approved covering about 300 slum communities 21,500
families. It is very interesting to share with you that in this process of
city-wide and all key actors working together, we found that communities
under threat of eviction or squatters are always selected as priority for
upgrading and being negotiated for better land deal which amount to about
66%. This is probably the effective way to find solutions for communities
to be faced with eviction beforehand !!! It is also very interesting to
find that 77% of former insecure slum communities can stay in the same
location with improved tenure security either purchasing the existing land
or have long lease deal with better housing development either reblocking or
reconstruction or land-sharing. Only about 23% relocation and almost half
of the relocation move to the land nearby. So of all total upgrading
approved, only about 12.5% relocate to land further away from former slums
location. 82% of total have long term land security, the rest have short
term deal, with about 90% as collective ownership. I think the above
figures are very significant finding showing no problem at all for urban
poor communities to stay in the city where they have been with better status
and social physical improvement.

However, I will have harder work next since more money will always bring
more problems and surely new more problems I have not faced before. Thiis
nation-wide upgrading program have brought me so much more knowledge in the
past two years, however, they have also taken much of my energy and time. I
only hope that this work in Thailand will help contribute to the knowledge
and struggle we are all working in our countries. I will be glad to share
all these knowledge with you in whatever requested. I would also like to
assure you all that it is possible to upgrade or develop slums all over the
country if we have the strong will to do so with communities.

The day this nation-wide program was approved by the Cabinet on 2nd of this
month, there was also cabinet reshuffle in the evening of the same day and
the MInister and Deputy Priminister who strongly support this program were
transfered. So now, I have faced with totally new Minister and Deputy
Priminister in this program again. This is just to tell you that there will
never be an end to difficulties if you want to keep doing and changing
things. Sometimes, I think God is very kind to me to keep showing me to
develop more and more knowledge and patience to deal with more and more
difficulties.

So, this is just to share with you what I am upto here in Thailand so I hope
some friends could probably apologise me for being so bad not to be able to
participate in some of the event you kindly invited.

Also I would like to let you know that we are also planning big regional
meeting event in early October to link this Thai city-wide slum upgrading
process with Regional World Habitat Day and Regional meeting in which
Habitat Executive Director and probably Thai Priminister will be joining.
More information soon.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

With best wishes
Somsook


achr@loxinfo.co.th