PHUKET: All the well-known holiday beaches on Phuket's west coast will be unprotected by lifeguards from tomorrow as an annual contract ends with no new agreement in sight.

''We will return the lifesaving equipment today and that will be it,'' Phuket Lifeguard Club communications manager Witanya ''Pik'' Chuayuan said today.

News that all well-known Phuket beaches including Patong, Kamala, Karon and Kata will have no lifeguards as the dangerous monsoon season draws near has shocked one Phuket water safety expert, who also works in toursm.

''This is the time we really need lifeguards on the beaches,'' said the expert, who prefers to remain anonymous. ''The lifeguards appear to be doing everything they can to resovle this issue, but it is difficult to do so.''

The Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation, which pays the lifeguards, had been ''really evasive'' on the issue of solving the problem, the expert said.

Phuket's best-known beaches were also left unguarded for several weeks last year when the contract expired and this year the issue is complicated by a once-every-four-years election for the administrative organisation that takes place on April 7.

As a result, all 13 popular Phuket holiday beaches could go unguarded for at least a month - or longer if there is a challenge to the election outcome.

''All the equipment has to be returned today,'' the expert said. ''It may be that on some beaches, some of the lifeguards work on, voluntarily.

''But without equipment, they put their own lives at greater risk in carrying out rescues. If one of them dies carrying out a rescue, it will be difficult to maintain a lifeguard service.''

Ironically, beaches where lifeguards have a second job - perhaps on a jet-ski - are likely to be better protected from tomorrow than those where lifeguards did as they were asked and became professional lifeguards.

''The difficulty is that people need money and many of the lifeguards are bound to look for other jobs,'' the expert said. ''It means that all the training and effort will be wasted.''

As a beach destination without lifeguards on its beaches, Phuket's international reputation inevitably suffers. Yet the local authorities, having experienced the problem last year, have failed to find a more satisfactory system.

The Phuket lifeguard contract is open to tender each year for the sake of transparency. However, the Phuket Lifeguard Club - which has lifted training and improved beach safety since winning the contract two years ago - is not necessarily going to bid again this year.

''The contract is for about 10 million baht. To apply, we have to deposit the equivalent of five percent with the administrative organisation,'' Khun Pik said. ''I am not sure we can fund the deposit this year.''

The Phuket water safety expert - not a club official - said that most of the senior managers with the club were ''totally exhausted'' after a year of working seven days a week to maintain the lifeguard service.

A plan to establish a lifeguard training centre in a disused sala at Nai Harn beach in Phuket's south has also not proceeded, even though Australian connections were prepared to fund most of the project.

The beaches where lifeguards have been operating until today are Ya Nui, Nai Harn, Kata Noi, Kata, Karon, Patong, Kamala, Laem Singh, Surin, Bang Tao, Nai Yang and Nai Thon.

''Even the warning signs at some of the beaches have been allowed to fall into disrepair,'' the expert said.

''With warnings less visible and no lifeguards at the most dangerous time of the year . . . there are other ways they could manage this.''