“We did not know about this, but we will investigate it,” Salil Manabutr of the Public Health and Environment Office at the Cherng Talay Tambon Administration Organisation (OrBorTor) told The Phuket News today (Oct 3).
The offensive water pouring onto the beach was brought to Ms Salil’s attention by The Phuket News after a video of the “fountain of brown” was sent in by a Phuket News reader, who noted that the discharge was pouring out from the back of a hotel by the beachfront.
“The truth is that at Surin Beach there are some businesses that discharge wastewater without any permit from the government confirming that the businesses adhere to environmental wastewater-treatment standards,” Ms Salil said.
“Many officials in Cherng Talay know about this and are doing there best to fix the problem,” she said.
An officer at the Public Works Division of the Cherng Talay OrBorTor, who declined to be named, told The Phuket News, “We have checked many areas where people have complained about this and we are still trying to fix the problem.
“I can’t say how long it will take to prevent this from happening. Some situations we can fix very quickly, other problems we cannot,” he said.
“However, the Public Works Division is doing the best that we can do,” he added.
Meanwhile, Ms Salil warned that legal action loomed for any particular person or organisation found discharging untreated wastewater into a public area.
In January, the Cherng Talay OrBorTor began pumping out large volumes of foul and unsightly untreated sewage that had been accumulating in a canal near Surin Beach, and transferring it to temporary holding tanks near Bang Tao Beach. (See story here.)