Officials sprang into action after photos posted on Facebook on Sunday (March 26) showed the black water, with comments that it also smelled unpleasant.
Surin Yotarak, Chief of Sakoo Tambon, told The Phuket News, “Today (April 28), we went to check the black water with Thalang District Chief, Veera Kerdsirimongkol. We discovered that it was not polluted water from the village or a hotel.
“We did find a construction project that is located near canal, which we thought might be the source of the black water. The project owner had no documents to show that any water being released is treated first. We will follow up on this point.
“But the main cause was a huge pile of dead leaves that had blocked the canal and then rotted. In the recent rain, water pressure broke through this blockage and pushed the rotted leaves down to the sea.”
Mr Surin said that the OrBorTor had brought in an excavator to dig out the canal so that it flows freely.
He added, “The Provincial Environment Office tested the water, which passed water standards by a number of parameters. It is not polluted water as the posts on Facebook stated.”
As for the smell from the rotted leaves, he said, this will be treated tomorrow by the use of Effective Micro-organisms.