Police in Bangkok are checking dozens of brothels to see if they are illegally siphoning groundwater for ‘soapy massages’ – contributing to the sinking of the capital.
The crackdown was launched after a trafficking raid on ‘Victoria Secret’ massage parlour found underage sex workers, a ledger listing bribes to officials and evidence the venue was stealing groundwater to avoid paying pricey utility bills.
Environmental officials say the illegal tapping of water contributes to the sinking of Bangkok, a low-lying city built on the banks of the Chaophraya river.
More than 40 ‘soapy massage’ parlours – huge brothels with dozens private bathrooms where customers receive sexual services – are being inspected for water theft. Pictured: Bangkok’s night scene
Environmental officials say the illegal tapping of water contributes to the sinking of Bangkok, a low-lying city built on the banks of the Chaophraya river
The crackdown was launched after a trafficking raid on ‘Victoria Secret’ massage parlour found underage sex workers, a ledger listing bribes to officials and evidence the venue was stealing groundwater to avoid paying pricy utility bills
This is because the low-lying city – large parts of which are over 3ft beneath sea level – is built on clay which needs to retain its moisture to prevent it drying out and becoming vulnerable to subsidence.
More than 40 ‘soapy massage’ parlours – huge brothels with dozens private bathrooms where customers receive sexual services – are being inspected for water theft.
‘Today we will… examine the water quality of each room we will go inside,’ Suwat Inthasit, deputy commander of Natural Resources and Enviroment Crime Suppression Division, told reporters before leading a raid on the ‘Embassy Entertain’ massage parlour in a Bangkok district notorious for its smutty nightlife.
HOW ARE MASSAGE PARLOURS CONTRIBUTING TO THE SINKING OF BANGKOK?
The police crackdown on massage parlours thought to be illegally extracting groundwater from beneath Thailand’s capital is related to fears about the rapidly sinking city’s future.
Bangkok is very low-lying – the city is on average only about 5ft above sea level – and much of it is sinking at a rate of between 0.4 and 1.2ins a year.
The area, which was originally swampland, is characterised by soft marine clay resting atop groundwater reservoirs.
Groundwater is naturally occurring water stored beneath the surface of the earth, found in soil and between rocks.
There are over eight million people living in the city, which has about 5,000 tall buildings and nine million vehicles. Pictured: The red light district of the city
But if too much of the water is taken from beneath the clay, the ground becomes dry and increases the chance of subsidence – the sinking of land.
On top of the diminishing groundwater – which is being taken at a rate of 300,000 litres per venue per night, according to politician and former massage parlour mogul Chuwit Kamolvist – the city’s growth is contributing.
There are over eight million people living in the city, which has about 5,000 tall buildings and nine million vehicles.
The sheer weight of these vehicles and buildings makes subsidence more likely.
‘We suspect they have illegally used groundwater,’ he said.
Environmental officers can test the water to determine whether it is from a legitimate piped source or illegally taken from the ground.
Experts have warned that parts of Bangkok could be submerged by 2030, chiefly due to rising sea levels and the draining of groundwater in the capital’s swampy soil.
The practice exploded during the city’s rapid development several decades ago.
Efforts in recent years to regulate groundwater use have drastically slowed the city’s sinking rate from a peak of around 10 centimetres a year in the late 1970s.
Environmental officers can test the water to determine whether it is from a legitimate piped source or illegally taken from the ground
But the massage parlours’ breach of regulations has revealed yet another way in which notorious venues fail to be above board.
Although prostitution is technically illegal in Thailand, it is widely tolerated and openly practiced, with gaudy brothels dominating some areas of the capital.
A system of bribes and loopholes keeps the lucrative industry afloat, with police largely turning a blind eye unless brothels are suspected of employing underage or trafficked sex workers.
Public officials are routinely implicated in kickback scandals allowing the sex industry to flourish, but police rarely face prosecution in a country where wealth and rank shields wrongdoers from the law.