水淹曼谷 垃圾成災

In Thailand's capital, much of the city's attention is focused on keeping more water from flowing into the city's downtown. But there are also worries over the health risks posed by floating garbage, open sewage and toxic runoff from industrial estates and rice paddies from the north.

人們對泰國首都曼谷的注意力現在主要是在防止更多的水流入曼谷市中心。但是人們也擔心，由於漂浮的垃圾、沒有掩蓋的污水溝，以及從工業區和北方稻田溢流出的有毒物質會帶來健康風險。

Sabong Suprang has been working as a trash collector in Bangkok for more than 10 years and says he likes his job because he makes the city cleaner.

素普朗在曼谷從事收垃圾的工作10多年了。他說，他喜歡他的工作， 因爲他讓曼谷更乾淨。

Since the flood arrived in Bangkok, the 52-year-old has been working seven days a week. In Bangkok’s Phet Kasem district, where water has been waist-deep for a week, he is standing barefoot aboard a garbage truck, picking up waste with his bare hands, sometimes grimacing at the unbearable odor.

自曼谷發生水災以來，52歲的素普朗每週工作7天。在曼谷的一個區域，那裏的洪水齊腰已經一個星期了。素普朗光腳站在一輛垃圾車上，赤手空拳的撿拾垃圾，有時候愁眉苦臉地忍受着惡臭。

He says we normally collect trash every day when there is no flooding, but where there is flooding it’s really difficult to access the area for collection. He says there has been a lot of garbage since people evacuated, a lot of it has been left for weeks and smells very bad.

素普朗說，通常沒有水災的時候我們每天收垃圾，但是現在淹水了，要到這個地區收垃圾非常困難。他表示，在人們撤離後垃圾非常多，很多垃圾已經堆放了好幾個星期，氣味難聞極了。

Bangkok authorities estimate the city normally produces 8,000 tons of waste daily, and trucks the garbage to one of three landfill sites. Two of those sites are now underwater. With fewer trash crews working, they now gather just 400 tons per day.

曼谷當局估計，曼谷通常每天製造出8千噸垃圾，這些垃圾被運到三個掩埋場之一。其他兩個掩埋場現在被淹在水裏。由於收垃圾的人少了，現在每天只能收集400噸垃圾。

Deputy Bangkok Governor, Pornthep Techapaiboon says the city does not have enough boats for those workers who do still show up everyday.

曼谷副市長包恩澤披表示，曼谷沒有足夠的船隻給每天仍然來上班的工人使用。

“Collecting it now, this is the most difficult task because of the flooded area in this crisis, so we didn’t have enough task force because usually we have about 500 people in each district, but right now they are affected so about half of them come to work.”

包恩澤披說：“現在收垃圾最困難了，因爲水患地區有危機，我們沒有足夠人力。通常每個區域我們有大約500人收集垃圾，現在他們受到水患影響，只有大約一半的人來上班。”

The city typically employs some prisoners serving time for non-violent crimes who are willing to work for about $10 per day to collect trash. But the deputy governor says the convicts would rather build sandbag dikes instead of risking their health in the murky flood runoff.

曼谷一般都派遣一些服刑中的非暴力犯罪囚犯來收垃圾，這些囚犯願意接受每天大約10美元的工資。但是曼谷副市長說，這些囚犯寧願堆積沙袋，也不願意冒着健康危險，在泥濘的洪水溢流裏工作。“It’s rotten or smelly and polluted with very low oxygen content in the water, that’s all. But it’s no disease or other disease in there yet," he said. "If there is some contagious disease then it will spread very fast.”

曼谷副市長包恩澤披說：“到處是腐爛的東西，臭氣熏天，污染到水裏低含氧的東西。情況就是這樣。不過，現在還沒有出現疾病。如果出現了傳染病，疾病就會迅速蔓延。”

Solid trash waste is not the only problem. Bangkok produces an estimated 30,000 tons of sewage each day, and authorities worry about health risks from overloaded sewers. A fertilizer plant capable of processing all of Bangkok’s waste is still unaffected by the flood, but most people living in flooded areas have no access to flushing toilets. The deputy governor says the task of disposing of human waste has also fallen to trash collectors.

問題還不只是固體垃圾而已。曼谷每天製造出大約3萬噸的污水。當局擔心，負荷過重的下水道會帶來健康危險。一個足以處理曼谷所有垃圾的肥料場現在還沒有受到洪水影響，但是水災地區的大部分居民沒有沖水馬桶。曼谷副市長說，糞便處理工作也落到垃圾收集員的身上。

“And then also we have been keeping a lot of mobile toilets and so-called comfort seats, with the black bag so they can leave their things in there and they tie it up and put it out and then we can send people to pick it up,” said Techapaiboon.

曼谷副市長包恩澤披說：“我們保留了很多移動馬桶和附有黑袋子的所謂‘舒適座椅’，這樣的設備能讓人們的糞便留在袋子裏面，使用過後，人們拴緊袋子，把袋子放在屋外，然後我們就派人去收集。”

Besides reducing health risks, trash collectors are also helping to speed the flow of water out of the city. Flood monitors say keeping the city’s canals, drains and water pumps clear of debris is critical to speed the flow of flood runoff to the ocean, where much of the city’s waterlogged garbage will eventually end up.

除了降低健康危險之外，垃圾收集員還促使洪水加速流出曼谷。洪水觀察員說，讓曼谷的運河、溝渠以及水泵沒有垃圾碎物，對洪水加速流往大海至關重要，曼谷大部分浸了水的垃圾最終將流到海里。