The contracting company in charge of making preparations for the event, to be played in beaches all over Phuket from November 14 to 23, removed the purple flowers along an approximate 1.5 km stretch of Karon beach on Tuesday (October 7).
But in a meeting on Wednesday (October 8) Ittiporn Sangkaew, Deputy Mayor of Karon, agreed that officials will re-plant the morning glory flowers – which are in-bloom from October to December – shortly after the event ends on November 24.
Karon Municipality, along with help local residents, are usually in charge of improving and maintaining the morning glory flowers.
“I think Karon beach has more than enough space for competition – there was no need to destroy our beautiful landscape like this. Karon Municipality should have suggested another option to [the company] instead of ignoring the problem,” Karon Sub-district chief (Kamnan) Winai Chidchiew told The Phuket News.
Regional Environmental Office 15 (REO15) based in Phuket confirmed that removing morning glory has not affected the local environment.
“Morning glory is a plant that easy to plant and fast to grow, I think it can make a comeback after the games,” Dr Pornsri Suthanarak the Director of REO15 told The Phuket News.