PHUKET: Stinky black water poured out of Phuket's Bang Tao canal again today as local authorities continued to find excuses not to solve the problem.
The one approach local authorities appear intent on not taking is to pursue the offending polluters, close down the resorts or restaurants involved and arrest the perpetrators.
At least it now seems to be widely agreed that ineffective EM balls are not going to clean water that appears to include human waste. It blackens Bang Tao beach and Phuket's reputation as a clean and healthy tourist destination.
Other black water has recently also polluted Karon and Kamala beaches. Most of Phuket's famous west coast beaches suffer from pollution to one degree or another.
Municipal councils have been slow to react to the growing degradation of Phuket's most appealing natural attractions.
Three years ago, a German television team exposed the hazardous discharge of waste water onto Karon beach. Little has changed.
Today the stinky black water at Bang Tao was flowing to the right, along the beach, in the general direction of some of Phuket's best-know resorts.
On a headland overlooking the Bang Tao canal sits the Amanpuri, perhaps the world's first boutique resort and the pathfinder for all of Phuket's luxury resorts.
But unless the local authorities start to take real action, to either correct deficiencies in wastewater plants or shut down pollution sources, Phuket's golden days for quality tourism may be at serious risk, as Phuketwan and others have warned.
Cherng Talay Mayor Ma-Ann Samran was prepared to say today that of 18 restaurants close to the canal, only eight had registered. Of 16 resorts nearby, two had not registered.
The local authorities are ''trying to talk to the businesspeople.'' The Department of Environment and Natural resources is also making further checks.
Although Phuket Governor Maitree Intrusud splashed a little black water around the last time the canal discharged black mess and guided tourists with their noses in the air across the stream, little seems likely to change in a hurry.
Official figures on pollution levels at the beaches where tourists swim on Phuket are not released and seem unlikely to be released in the future.
The one approach local authorities appear intent on not taking is to pursue the offending polluters, close down the resorts or restaurants involved and arrest the perpetrators.
At least it now seems to be widely agreed that ineffective EM balls are not going to clean water that appears to include human waste. It blackens Bang Tao beach and Phuket's reputation as a clean and healthy tourist destination.
Other black water has recently also polluted Karon and Kamala beaches. Most of Phuket's famous west coast beaches suffer from pollution to one degree or another.
Municipal councils have been slow to react to the growing degradation of Phuket's most appealing natural attractions.
Three years ago, a German television team exposed the hazardous discharge of waste water onto Karon beach. Little has changed.
Today the stinky black water at Bang Tao was flowing to the right, along the beach, in the general direction of some of Phuket's best-know resorts.
On a headland overlooking the Bang Tao canal sits the Amanpuri, perhaps the world's first boutique resort and the pathfinder for all of Phuket's luxury resorts.
But unless the local authorities start to take real action, to either correct deficiencies in wastewater plants or shut down pollution sources, Phuket's golden days for quality tourism may be at serious risk, as Phuketwan and others have warned.
Cherng Talay Mayor Ma-Ann Samran was prepared to say today that of 18 restaurants close to the canal, only eight had registered. Of 16 resorts nearby, two had not registered.
The local authorities are ''trying to talk to the businesspeople.'' The Department of Environment and Natural resources is also making further checks.
Although Phuket Governor Maitree Intrusud splashed a little black water around the last time the canal discharged black mess and guided tourists with their noses in the air across the stream, little seems likely to change in a hurry.
Official figures on pollution levels at the beaches where tourists swim on Phuket are not released and seem unlikely to be released in the future.
Don't envision any arrests or closures as the resorts probably live up their part of the deal, and why wouldn't they ? Problem is that a lot of people are housed in the area, if we are lucky then they (the houses) have a (working) septic tank and then lead the effluent out into the sewage system and from there it goes untreated out in the khlongs. We have to remember that in Thailand the Septic tank is just used as a kind of a holding tank/separator where paper and larger parts are held back, and this is not the way the septic tank is intended to be used and it's efficiency is in this setup close to zero.
Posted by Sailor on April 25, 2014 22:45