The Tha Chin river ( th, แม่น้ำท่าจีน, , ) is a

distributary A distributary, or a distributary channel, is a stream that branches off and flows away from a main stream channel. Distributaries are a common feature of river deltas. The phenomenon is known as river bifurcation. The opposite of a distributar ...

of the Chao Phraya river,

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

. It splits near the province of Chai Nat and then flows west from the Chao Phraya through the central plains, until it empties into the

Gulf of Thailand The Gulf of Thailand, also known as the Gulf of Siam, is a shallow inlet in the southwestern South China Sea, bounded between the southwestern shores of the Indochinese Peninsula and the northern half of the Malay Peninsula. It is around in le ...

in Samut Sakhon Province.

Regional names

The Tha Chin river has many regional names. After it splits from Chao Phraya river at Chai Nat, it is called Makham Thao River; while passing

Suphan Buri Suphan Buri () is a town (''thesaban mueang'') in central Thailand. It covers ''tambon'' Tha Philiang and parts of ''tambons'' Rua Yai and Tha Rahat, all within the Mueang Suphan Buri District. As of 2006 it had a population of 26,656. The town ...

it is the Suphan River; while passing Nakhon Pathom it becomes the Nakhon Chai Si river. Only near its mouth at Samut Sakhon does it become the Tha Chin River, named after the former name of Samut Sakhon. The name Tha Chin is the convention used in most scientific documents.

Tributaries

Tributaries of the Tha Chin include Huai Krasiao, Huai Mae Thawip, Khlong Chorakhe Sam Phan, and Khlong Bang Len.

Tha Chin basin

The Tha Chin drains a total area of .Basins of Thailand
/ref> The Tha Chin Basin is part of the Chao Phraya Watershed.

Past journey

In the past, there used to be passenger boats running back and forth on the Tha Chin River from Suphan Buri to Tha Tian Pier in Bangkok. From time to time, passengers will disembark at Wat Ngiu Rai Railway Station to travel by train to Bangkok. The passenger boat business is owned by the private company Suphan Steam Packet Company. Later, when land transportation is more prosperous and convenient. Therefore, water transportation is sluggish. The passenger navigation business on the Tha Chin River therefore ceased in the early 1960's.

Health of the river

The Thai Pollution Control Department (PCD) has reported that the water quality of rivers flowing into the upper Gulf of Thailand has seriously deteriorated in the past decade. The department found the Tha Chin estuary contains bacteria and nutrient pollution from

phosphate In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphoric acid . The phosphate or orthophosphate ion is derived from phosph ...

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ea ...

, and

nitrogen Nitrogen is the chemical element with the symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a nonmetal and the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, often called the pnictogens. It is a common element in the universe, estimated at se ...

. Nutrient pollution causes algae to grow faster than ecosystems can handle, harming water quality, food resources for aquatic animals, and marine habitats. It also decreases the oxygen that fish need to survive. PCD rated water quality in the river in 2015 as "poor". The PCD findings indicated large amounts of wastewater were discharged into the river from households, industry, and agriculture.

References

Rivers of Thailand Chao Phraya River Gulf of Thailand {{Thailand-river-stub