Caring for the water resources of Koh Tao
From APEC HRDWG Wiki
This page was developed from a paper written by a delegate to the 2008 APEC Youth Camp held in Puno, Peru. The purpose of the Youth Camp was to learn about sustainable development especially as it pertains to water-based economies as well as to investigate the culture and economy of the Lake Titicaca region in Peru.
Contents |
An Investigation into the Potential of Koh Tao
The essay by Marcus Taylor, a Sustainable Development and Appropriate Technology student at Appalachian State University, developed for the APEC Youth Event in Puno, Peru from 1 October 2008 to 6 October 2008 was a case study on the island of Koh Tao in the south of Thailand. The paper mainly concerned the danger of the water resources on the island, and served as a starting point to explain that many islands in the Asia-Pacific region face similar problems. The essay began by addressing the existing environmental efforts on the island, of which there are many, and the key players in these efforts. After establishing the work that is being done, several problems were identified concerning the water resources (or lack thereof), water pollution, and water culture regarding this small island in the south of Thailand.
Koh Tao
Koh Tao, or Turtle Island, is a small island in Koh Samui archipelago in the bay of Thailand. Located approximately 70 kilometers from Suratthani off of the coast of the southern Thai peninsula, the island is renowned as a premier scuba diving location, especially for new divers. The island also serves many other functions regarding tourism, such as rock climbing, water skiing, hiking, and simply relaxing. There are numerous dive companies on the island, hotels, hostels, and other infrastructure.
The island was relatively uninhabited until 1980, when it was discovered as a premiere location for scuba diving. Since then, the island has seen rapid development, including roads, buildings, docks and ports, and much more, all to serve the needs of the growing tourism industry and the livelihoods of the inhabitants of the island.
Proposed Problems
There were several problems that were addressed in the essay. The first of these problems concerned the runoff and wastewater problem on the island, which is most likely the biggest contributor to reef degradation and endangerment in and around the bays of the island. There is no centralized wastewater treatment plant, and the wastes from individual businesses, houses, bungalows, and hotels are dealt with in an unsanitary fashion, if at all.
Another problem was the divers that come to the island. While there are environmental dive programs offered by many of the dive companies on the island, there are no mandatory standards to govern the activities of divers or dive instructors. This leads to, in many instances, uninformed divers who negatively affect the ecosystem with which they are interacting.
The final problem discussed was the lack of a clean water resource on the island. There are many permanent inhabitants on the island and many more transitory inhabitants. All of these people need access to clean drinking water, which is currently being shipped in by boat. The issues regarding this are that it is not environmentally beneficial to transport the water to the island, and the waste products generated by the bottled water pose a problem to such a small island with a recently developed (and still small) recycling program.
Proposed Solutions
The wastewater problem could be dealt with in two different ways. The first would be a centralized wastewater treatment plant in which all of the wastes would be ducted to a plant, ideally in the center of the island, for treatment. The second would be site specific wastewater treatment facilities, which would ideally consist of biological methods in which the water is filtered through a series of plants and algae to clean the water before releasing it into the ocean. With both options, the benefits would go beyond the obvious of decreasing the danger posed to the local ecosystems of the bays and surrounding waters to employing more Thais in the construction process of the wastewater treatment as well as the maintenance of the facilities.
A solution to the diver education problem would be to establish a system of mandates or regulations by a governing body for the dive companies on the island. By providing a standard of how to educated the divers, the local government could ensure that the reefs were not negatively affected by the economic activity of learning divers. Furthermore, the essay proposed creating an environmental branch of the local government to oversee all of these new projects.
The lack of clean water on the island could be solved by a water purification plant. Similar to the wastewater treatment proposal, it would create jobs while providing a sustainable solution to a growing and important need. This undertaking could be funded by the local government, or accomplished as a joint endeavor between the government and the local businesses, which are the sources of the greatest demand for clean, potable water on the island.
Full Text
Millions of years ago, the Earth had yet to be molded by human beings, their thoughts, actions, creations, or destructions. Thousands of years ago, the forests of the Amazon had yet to be trod upon by the feet of human beings. Hundreds of years ago, Antarctica was virtually unknown to the geographic advances and explorations of human beings. Tens of years ago, the tiny island of Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand was also essentially untouched by human endeavors, a pristine paradise of white sandy beaches, clear blue waters, incredible coral reefs and impressive marine life that was all still slightly beyond the scope of human exploration in the middle of the twentieth century.
Today, this same island, as with the other aforementioned locales, is being trod upon, utilized, and forced to adapt to human wishes. Consequentially, it serves as a dumping ground for the by-products of these activities. Koh Tao is located approximately 70 kilometers east of the coast of Suratthani in the Thai peninsula, and is one of the country’s, and the world’s, major dive destinations. It is a center for education and certification for divers from the world over, as well as rock climbers, water skiers, beach bums and many others. Because of this, the water resources of Koh Tao, ever so precious to the economy of the island, the inhabitants and tourists, the flora, fauna, and marine life, and the ambiance of the locale, are in a precarious position; threatened, but not lost.
There are serious and dedicated efforts in existence to protect the environment of Koh Tao. These activities not only engage the inhabitants of the island, but the visitors as well. Furthermore, there are several existing partnerships with foreign universities, like Queensland University in Australia and Newcastle University in the United Kingdom, to study the status of the coral reefs through a program called Reef Check (as well as a plethora of diving opportunities with ecological aspects to educate new divers while they are obtaining their certification). The island also maintains several active ecological groups which initiate and carry out various projects to preserve the environment of the island and the surrounding waters. In general, these groups have full support from local businesses, islanders, tourists, and, most importantly, local government officials.
Two of the most active organizations are Eco-Koh Tao and Marine Conservation Koh Tao, both of which have had and continue to provide significant programs on the island related to the sustainability of the available water resources. Some of the projects worth mentioning are their regular beach and underwater clean-up days, which remove trash from the beaches before it makes its way into the bays, as well as that which does make it to the ocean, there are serious research efforts that monitor and document the status of the local coral reefs, experimental (as well as established) technologies being employed to restore these reefs, protection and re-release projects for a variety of turtle species, water quality monitoring studies, and recycling initiatives designed to combat the environmentally insensitive practices used to deal with the constantly increasing influx of waste products onto the island and into its water resources.
With such a well-established community of environmental activists, concerned islanders, a supportive local government, educated ecologists dedicated to education, existing programs and continuing efforts, Koh Tao is well on its way to dealing with the threats that face the island from the ever-increasing flow of tourists onto the island, the businesses and buildings that are springing up to meet this demand, and the money, material goods, food, and water that accompany these things. However, there are aspects of the water resources on Koh Tao that are still being seriously threatened despite the existing efforts.
A plan that is in serious need on the island, and that is being investigated for the future, is how to deal with the runoff and wastewater created on the island. Before 1980, there were virtually no buildings or inhabitants on Koh Tao, and less than thirty years later, the island is teeming with people, one of the most popular tourist destinations in a country renowned for its tourism. In part due to the rapid development of the island, there is no centralized wastewater treatment plant, and the wastes from individual businesses, houses, bungalows, and hotels are dealt with in an unsanitary fashion, if at all. The wastes of the humans of the island are, very probably, the most serious local threat to the coral in the surrounding areas. With a treatment plant and a system of waste removal from existing sites, as well as established norms for new construction, the local government could feasibly assuage this monumental threat to their local waters. The undertaking would temporarily employ a variety of Thai citizens, from construction workers to planning officials to wastewater experts, as well as a number of permanent employees to maintain the plant. Ideally the new plant would utilize an ecological machine or some form of natural wastewater treatment. Additionally, the local government could opt to distribute wastewater treatment not from a single centralized location, but instead with a series of smaller facilities, such as an environmentally friendly wastewater treatment process for each building or series of buildings that produces waste. While this would be a more expensive option, it would provide more autonomy in the realm of new construction as well as taking a good deal of economic burden off of the government itself.
Diver education is also an incredibly important aspect of maintaining the precious water resources of Koh Tao. While there are plenty of existing opportunities for interested parties to enhance their knowledge of ocean ecology on the island, the majority of divers do not participate in these activities. What’s more, the divers that are not engaging themselves in ecological informational sessions are the ones that pose the most serious threat to the beaches, bays, waters, reefs, and ocean life. By setting up a series of mandatory standards for instructors to include in their sessions with new and previously trained divers, the problem of environmental negligence by tourists could be seriously curtailed. Environmental organizations and the local government could partner to address this issue by appointing a team to monitor the success of this campaign and authorize repercussions if standards are not being followed.
Along these lines, establishing an ecological branch within the local government would be one of the most progressive steps that the island could take in ensuring the safety and future of its water resources. As previously discussed, there is a clear and apparent interest in the issue, as well as definite existing cooperation from the local government. With this in mind, it would not be a big challenge or a difficult undertaking to establish a committee within the government to oversee projects, assist local environmental groups, allocate funds, develop and implement new projects, and suggest more environmentally responsible policies for existing or proposed parts of the local government.
Finally, the island is in serious need of a method for water purification to provide inhabitants of the island and visitors to the island with a source of fresh, local water. Currently, all of the water on the island is shipped in by boat, with the water from the taps not being potable. There is no water purification plant on the island to service the need for water, which leads to a serious problem with waste disposal, as nearly everyone on the island consumes water from plastic bottles. The creation of a water purification plant would, similar to the wastewater treatment proposal, create jobs while providing a sustainable solution to a growing and important need. This undertaking could be funded by the local government, or accomplished as a joint endeavor between the government and the local businesses, who are the ones who provide the largest demand for clean, potable water on the island.
All of these suggestions, if employed, could make the tiny, beautiful island of Koh Tao serve as a model for other islands in similar situations (of which there are certainly many, not only in the same archipelago, or the same country, but all of the Asia-Pacific region and much of the world). There are currently a multitude of problems facing islands such as Koh Tao, problems of ecological, economic, and cultural background. So many of these problems are related to the critical water resources that not only keep these islands afloat (metaphorically speaking), but that make them what they are. There are sustainable solutions to problems of water contamination, endangered coral reefs and turtle populations, and fresh water sources, and Koh Tao, or Turtle Island, has the opportunity, the resources, the know-how, a dedicated community and a willing government, that can unite to serve as a catalyst of change in how developing islands treat their increasingly precious water resources.
Recognition
The essay was selected as one of the best three essays for the APEC Youth Camp 2008 in Puno, Peru. Each of the 36 delegates from the fifteen member economies that participated in the camp wrote an essay relating to one of three topics: climate change, water pollution, or water culture. "The Tiny Island That Could" was selected as a winner, along with the essay of Nicole Ceci (USA) and Yu-Hsuan Cheng (Chinese Taipei). Each of the three winners was given a unique plaque in honor of their accomplishment.
References
Cushman, Colin. External Costs from Increased Island Visitation: Case Study from Southern Thai Islands. Dept. of Resource Economics, Univ. of Mass., Amherst, May 2002
SEA-Coral Reefs – Thailand 2003(b). Review of National Data and Information: Coral reefs, Thailand. UNEP/GEF Project on Reversing Environmental Degradation trends in the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand.
Yeemin, Thamasak, Makamas Sutthacheep and Rattika Pettongma. Coral reef restoration projects in Thailand. Ocean & Coastal Management, Volume 49, Issues 9-10, 2006, Pages 562-575
