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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/05/thailand-bangkok-plastic-pollution-chao-praya-river-abbot-buddhist-seven-clean-seas-hippo>
"“Once upon a time this river was filled with fish; now, nothing swims in it
any more,” says Wat Chak Daeng temple’s abbot, Phra Mahapranom Dhammalangkaro,
as he looks out over Bangkok’s Chao Praya River.
As a novice monk in the 1980s, he remembers seeing children playing in the
river and people scooping up handfuls of water to drink. But when he became
abbot of Wat Chak Daeng more than 25 years later, those bucolic images were a
thing of the past. Instead, when he arrived at the 240-year-old temple, he was
saddened by the sight of the dirty river and the rubbish-strewn grounds
surrounding it.
Dhammalangkaro knew that if nothing was done, the situation would only get
worse. He built a recycling centre in the temple grounds, which evolved from
collecting a handful of bottles to upcycling 300 tonnes of plastic a year. His
biggest problem was that he was unable clean the river itself.
But then he met Tom Peacock-Nazil, chief executive of Seven Clean Seas, an
organisation that finds solutions for plastic pollution. Last week the two men
launched the Hippo, a solar-powered boat, which aims to remove 1.4m kilos of
plastic a year from Bangkok’s busiest waterway.
“I want to take the waste from the river before it goes to the sea,” says
Dhammalangkaro."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
