PHUKET: The polluted Phuket beaches crisis intensified yesterday with locals at Bang Tao revealing that tourists were being turned off as the waste water was turned on again.

Locals held their noses at the stench from Bang Tao canal, which was supposed to have been cleaned up after stinky dark water blackened a long stretch of the five-star beach last year.

The environmental degradation mirrors the continuing pollution at Karon beach, once regarded as one of Phuket's finest, where authorities now admit the waste water system cannot cope with the daily discharge from 593 resorts in the district.

At Bang Tao, on the shores of the stinky canal, resident and Longtail Club member Abhisit Pahan, who usually earns his living taking tourists to offshore islands, said: ''Tourists don't even want to set foot in the water before they climb into a boat.

''Cuts become infected, this water is so bad. Two or three times a day, polluted water seems to be discharged into the canal without treatment.''

A night earlier at Karon temple, Phuket Governor urged local residents at a special meeting to respond.

''The Asia Beach Games are coming in November It's a great opportunity for Phuket. This is your home. You have to respond.''

By the time that the governor made his plea, the audience appeared to consist mostly of local council staff. If there was even one representative from any of the 593 resorts in the district, they did not make themselves known.

Earlier, resident Chumpon Peschsiri made the point where the problem begins . . . and ends. ''The Tropical Hotel has let bad water run straight into the sea for five or six years already. We complain to the local council. Nothing happens.''

The meeting was told that Karon could deal with 6000 cubic metres of waste water but the local resorts were generating 8000 to 12,000 cubic metres a day. The extra waste is held for treatment but sometimes overflows.

Next month, an outsourced company is to make a survey of the resorts with the aim of determining which have waste water treatment systems and which do not.

Phuket's deteriorating lower and central west coast beaches continue to attract more mass-market tourists who appear to be willing to step over trash and bad water to swim.

Phuketwan maintains that only a powerful new Phuket Beach Authority can restore, protect and maintain the island's beaches. Many have been deteriorating and are likely to continue to be destroyed in the hands of inept, money-obsessed local councils.