PHUKET: Phuket City has won a major award for being a top Sustainable City in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations region, it was revealed today.
Although Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwansuppana picked up the award in Bali on November 23, the prestigious acknowledgement was only revealed on Phuket when an international agency reported the good news this afternoon.
Mayor Somjai, who also looks after the historic Phuket Town area within her much larger role overseeing Phuket City, was delighted to receive international environmental kudos on behalf of Phuket's administrative heart.
Nine other municipalities and cities within Asean shared the Asean Environmentally Sustainable Cities Awards - but Phuket does't win many of them, so the holiday island's success is bound to be enjoyed.
The Malaysian news agency Bernama reported that Mayor Somjai ''was conferred the honorable awards on behalf of local people and the Phuket Municipality in the category of ''Clean Air''.
The Asean ESC Awards are organised each year by the Asean Working Group on Environmentally Sustainable Cities to encourage member countries to develop and improve sustainable environmental management in categories of Clean Air, Clean Water, and Clean and Green Land.
Phuket's air is certainly cleaner compared to Jakarta, Bangkok, Manila and the other big cities in the region. Keeping it that way will become more difficult as development spreads and the laws designed to keep the hills green above 80 metres go largely unenforced.
Mayor Somjai said yesterday that as well as Phuket City's win, Pitsanulok Municipality in the Lower Thai North has also won a top prize of the Asean ESC Awards this year in the category of Clean and Green Land for Small Cities.
This year's Phuketwan-Phuket Post Phuket Environmental Excellence Award of the Year 2011 was made last month to the people who redesigned the old Sarasin Bridge linking Phuket and Phang Nga into a walking and viewing point, making good use of the green maxim: Reuse, Recycle, Reduce.
Although Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwansuppana picked up the award in Bali on November 23, the prestigious acknowledgement was only revealed on Phuket when an international agency reported the good news this afternoon.
Mayor Somjai, who also looks after the historic Phuket Town area within her much larger role overseeing Phuket City, was delighted to receive international environmental kudos on behalf of Phuket's administrative heart.
Nine other municipalities and cities within Asean shared the Asean Environmentally Sustainable Cities Awards - but Phuket does't win many of them, so the holiday island's success is bound to be enjoyed.
The Malaysian news agency Bernama reported that Mayor Somjai ''was conferred the honorable awards on behalf of local people and the Phuket Municipality in the category of ''Clean Air''.
The Asean ESC Awards are organised each year by the Asean Working Group on Environmentally Sustainable Cities to encourage member countries to develop and improve sustainable environmental management in categories of Clean Air, Clean Water, and Clean and Green Land.
Phuket's air is certainly cleaner compared to Jakarta, Bangkok, Manila and the other big cities in the region. Keeping it that way will become more difficult as development spreads and the laws designed to keep the hills green above 80 metres go largely unenforced.
Mayor Somjai said yesterday that as well as Phuket City's win, Pitsanulok Municipality in the Lower Thai North has also won a top prize of the Asean ESC Awards this year in the category of Clean and Green Land for Small Cities.
This year's Phuketwan-Phuket Post Phuket Environmental Excellence Award of the Year 2011 was made last month to the people who redesigned the old Sarasin Bridge linking Phuket and Phang Nga into a walking and viewing point, making good use of the green maxim: Reuse, Recycle, Reduce.
Burma as Chair, ridiculous awards that reward.. nothing. I see ASEAN as turning into just another Old Boys Club where mutual pattings on the back will be the main goal.
Phuket has clean air because it happens to usually have a stiff breeze blowing in from the sea. There is no industry, yet, to pollute the air. I dare the committee to check the bacterial counts at various beaches. That's the real indicator of cleanliness.
Posted by Media Watcher on December 4, 2011 11:43