The response follows a video posted online by respected local marine conservation group Go Eco Phuket last Saturday (Mar 30) showing the black water flowing across the beach into the sea. (See video here.)
“People told us about the video on Saturday. What people can see is the treated water released onto the beach, but the black is from the sludge that still line the channel. We will remove that as soon as possible,” Nopporn Karuna, Deputy Chief Executive of the Kamala Tambon Administrative Organisation (OrBorTor) told The Phuket News yesterday (Apr 2).
“For the past two weeks we have been using two ozone water-treatment systems to treat the water in the canal, and those machines are now operating 24 hours a day,” he said. (See previous stories here and here.)
“I inspected the Pak Bang Canal at midday today (Apr 2). Now, the water has started to clear up. Also the water smells better.
“But we will have to figure out with public works official to have the black dregs remove from the channel across the beach as soon as possible,” Mr Nopporn said.
Mr Nopporn also speculated that the video had been recorded before the effects of the ozone water-treatment machines began having a positive effect on cleaning the filthy water in the canal.
“I think the clip shared was an old clip from when the wastewater problem was much worse – but it is better now after we dredged the muck from bottom of the canal and we used EM (effective micro-organism) balls, which made the water smell better and clearer,” he said.
“Today (Apr 2) there is little water flowing onto the beach, and it is not black as seen same in the video,” he added.
Ittiput Schadt, Secretary of Go Eco Phuket, told The Phuket News yesterday, “My purpose (in posting the video) is to not have wastewater flowing onto Kamala Beach because it destroys the image of tourism.
“My idea is to have officials stop any wastewater flowing onto the beach. They can take all the water (treated or otherwise) to be used elsewhere and fill water the channel across the beach with sand.
“That will prevent any wastewater flowing onto Kamala Beach ever again,” he said.