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<The Current Situation of Klong Toey Slum>

 

We divide the situation into three parts: Population, Work, and Lifestyle.

 

・Population

Now, there are about 150,000 people living in the slum. The population has been increasing in these past years. The population contains not only Thai, also Cambodian, Burmese etc, who immigrated to Thailand to seek for a job. The number of those people amounts about 1,000. Surprisingly, 5% of residents practice Islam, and there is a mosque for them. A school which is established by Duang Prateep foundation is located in the slum. About 540 students are going to the school now.
 

・Work

Most of the people in the slum make their living by

1. Taxi, motorcycle drivers

2. Loading and unloading pickup at the near port as daily workers

3. Selling handmade products such as food samples with magnet in the slum

 

・Lifestyle

Unexpectedly, most of households have home electrical appliances such as a fan and TV. In addition, some young adults even have  a smartphone. Originally, the slum was built on wetlands; therefore, the place was not likely to be a place to settle down for people. However, basic infrastructure, like electricity and water, runs in the area, and people pay for it. On the other hand, some dilapidated buildings can be seen. There is no plan of reconstruction for such buildings. Moreover, railway runs in the slum, which is to transport oil from the port to the city. Many people live nearby the rail truck, which is not favourable environment for people to live.

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<The Problems of Klong Toey Slum>

 

Klong Toey slum has a wide range of problems; such as fire, sanitation, education, divorce rate, drug, income, explosion, and eviction.

 

・Fire Hazard

Frequent occurrence of the fire hazard is a critical issue. There are roughly 3 cases of fire alarms per month mainly due to an electric leak (voltage of 220 in Thailand compared with that of 120 in the US). Since houses stand side by side and the location is inconvenient for ambulances, residents have almost no choice but to destroy them for eliminating fire. Fortunately, however, causalities are few. For example, there were no causalities in the slum when 60 houses were burnt by fierce fire. Still, residents are living in constant danger and may have lost all their properties. The housing reconstruction is not cheap at all, costing a family approximately 200,000THB which equals to 5600USD (March, 2017). Although victims are financially aided by the government with 30,000THB, that is not enough. Likewise, DPF provides food and money for supporting victims. Nevertheless, people in the slum have been suffering from fire hazard both financially and mentally.

 

・Poor Sanitation

The public hygiene in slum is not good. As you can see from the picture, garbage is everywhere on the road. Also, the dirty water is collected as the housing is on the wetlands. What’s worse, the flood is occurred in rainy reason, which makes these garbage and dirty water flow to lowland in slum. Examples of DPF actions are;

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1. Writing messages on a wall with children, such as “Don’t leave dog shit” and “Don’t throw away garbage”

2. Painting houses to make townscape better

 

In this way, DPF prevents more garbage to be thrown away. Plus, better townscape intends to prevent crime as well.