Local people told The Phuket News that they had complained to Phuket City Municipality about the stench many times over the past two years but nothing had been done to correct it.
They said that in dry weather, such as in the past couple of months, the smell gets even worse.
With no solution offered by local authorities, they appealed to the governor for his help in solving the problem.
Phuket City Deputy Mayor Thavorn Jirapattanasopon, who was also at yesterday’s inspection, was well aware of the problem, but said the City could do nothing about it.
“The waste water comes from Soi Paniang, which is in the Rassada Municipality. The smell spreads along the way and it has irritated residents living along the klong for a long time.
“In Rassada Municipality, there are no waste water treatment facilities, so untreated waste from that area goes into Klong Bang Yai and then flows down into Saphan Hin where it mixes, still untreated, with the sea.
“Every day, around 1,200 cubic metres of waste water flows down from Soi Paniang.
“We have our own waste water treatment which can handle 30,000 cubic metres a day but it was designed for managing waste water originating within the city.
“If we pump waste from Samkong to our treatment plant we risk overloading it.
“In any case, this will not solve the problem in a long term, since [Rassada] will still allow [untreated] waste water to be run down the canal. So it needs to be solved at the point where the waste comes from.”
Rassada Mayor Phudit Raksarach said, “We don’t just let it go. We’re trying to get it fixed. There are lots of villages in the Soi Paniang area and the cost would be around B60 million. We don’t have either the land or the budget to build a water treatment system there.”
Gov Maitree Intusut said, “This is not the problem of one municipality or another. It concerns everyone because it affects lots of people.
“Klong Bang Yai carries waste from Wichit and Kathu, as well as Rassada. So we need to get every section [of government] to join in and find a solution. In addition, we need to look at the problem of water flow in order to prevent floods [from the klong overflowing].”