Dwellers of Klong Toey
By Sze Ning
Klong Toey is perhaps not the most conventional tourist stop in Bangkok.
As we walked down the narrow streets littered with rubbish, we looked through windows that gave us a glimpse of poverty and passed the occasional ghosts of homes, now just rubble. We were at the largest slum in Bangkok.
Scene from Klong Toey
At the Duang Prateep Foundation, we were informed that 80,000 people reside there. Originally in the early fifties, people settled at Klong Toey to help construct the port nearby. Now, with machines taking over the necessity of manual labour, many Klong Toey dwellers survive by becoming roadside food vendors and engaging in other informal economies.
People at Klong Toey face many problems typical of a slum area. Most of them do not have any legal rights to the land. The vicious cycle of poverty also makes it hard to break from engaging in criminal activity as well as drug and alcohol dependence. With such social and financial problems, the children may be prevented from receiving proper
education.
Children at Kindergarten in Klong Toey
Of late, they have been facing the threat of eviction with the Port Authority wanting to clear the area to make way for a commercial area to improve tourism in the city. With support from the Duang Pratreep Foundation, the slum dwellers are fighting against the eviction as they are unable to afford the monthly rent, in the event that they are relocated to high rise flats, as proposed by the Port Authority.
“Home here”, says Daw, a proud slum-dweller who has lived in Klong Toey for over 50 years. She knows over 1000 of the community’s residents. She explains that they are uniting together to fight against the eviction. Just that morning, she had declined an offer to sell her home to a man planning to renovate it into an office. On the other hand, Nir, a van driver and resident of 30 years, says that “[if] a lot of people go, I [will] go [too]”.
The close-knitted social fabric of the community in Klong Toey may pose an answer to resolving the problem. With the Duang Prateep Foundation on the move, there may be hope for these residents to remain in the humble dwellings of the slum area.
Man and Kid from Klong Toey
Special thanks to Can and Orn, our Thai friends from Chulalongkorn University who acted as the translators for the interviews.
More on the Duang Prateep Foundation HERE.
