After seeing photographs of the condition of the beach supplied by The Phuket News, Gov Maitri Inthusut said that he would visit Kamala himself.
He noted that Kamala Tambon Administration Organisation has requested a budget of B570 million to build a waste water treatment plant in the village.
Gov Maitri has assigned each of his three vice-governors the job of solving specific problems of foul waste water in Phuket klongs.
The problem of waste water flowing from Nong Harn onto Karon beach will be the responsibility of V/Gov Jamroen Thippayapongtada.
V/Gov Somkiet Sangkhaosutthirak will look after Klong Bang Tao and the klong in Kamala, while V/Gov Sommai Preechasilpa has been assigned to look after the problems of Klong Panieng and Klong Bang Yai.
“During the dry season, these problems are always happening because the water gets trapped for a long time. Some of the waste water is bad, but not all of it; most of the BOD values of the water passed [the relevant standards].”
Biochemical oxygen demand, or BOD, is a measure of how much organic waste – sewage and kitchen waste, for example – there is in water. The more waste there is, the lower the amount of oxygen.
“The conclusion is to not to let the water be trapped for a long time. That’s the main reason that water goes foul.
“For example, in Klong Bang Yai we are pumping out waste water sediment and flushing with good water.
“But if we are going to solve the problem of the whole system, business operators and local people must not release waste water into the klong in the first place. Waste water has to be treated before it is released [into the klong].”