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Posted

I am sure the authorities appreciate you being such an apologist for them. They need that. They need you to continue boosting their lack of efforts. I spend a lot of time on Samui, and everyone I know that lives there complains about the water quality. it is horrific. Everyone I know is aware of the dumping of human waste into the sea. Why has this info passed you by? There are studies released from time to time, and the authorities make every effort to bury them. The results are always a danger to humans. I know dozens of people who have come down with skin infections after swimming

in these waters. Plain and simple. Please seek out the truth.

Spidermike, could you please share links to those studies?

They are often done by international bodies, as the Thai govt. refuses to be transparent with its citizens. They are often buried immediately. As you know censorship in the media here is rampant, so this kind of press rarely makes it into print. I will look and see if I can find some of these studies I have seen in the past. Probably not hard to find on the internet.

Posted

There are studies released from time to time, and the authorities make every effort to bury them.

Spidermike, could you please share links to those studies?

They are often done by international bodies, as the Thai govt. refuses to be transparent with its citizens. They are often buried immediately. As you know censorship in the media here is rampant, so this kind of press rarely makes it into print. I will look and see if I can find some of these studies I have seen in the past. Probably not hard to find on the internet.

I looked on inernet, but didnt find much - maybe i didnt look hard enough.

I came across PCD (Thai organization) study from 2010, naming the best beaches in Thailand according to lack of their pollution, but it didnt go into much details.

Anyway, if you stumble on a study on water quality at popular thai beaches, please share! Thanks!

Serg

Posted

There are studies released from time to time, and the authorities make every effort to bury them.

Spidermike, could you please share links to those studies?

They are often done by international bodies, as the Thai govt. refuses to be transparent with its citizens. They are often buried immediately. As you know censorship in the media here is rampant, so this kind of press rarely makes it into print. I will look and see if I can find some of these studies I have seen in the past. Probably not hard to find on the internet.

I looked on inernet, but didnt find much - maybe i didnt look hard enough.

I came across PCD (Thai organization) study from 2010, naming the best beaches in Thailand according to lack of their pollution, but it didnt go into much details.

Anyway, if you stumble on a study on water quality at popular thai beaches, please share! Thanks!

Serg

Here is something I found from the samui green project, which is getting very little support from the government.

OK, to inject a bit of reality here from a small bungalow owner. No, we would never pump raw sewage onto our beach but that said the only way to get the septic tanks emptied is to get the truck to come pump it out or do it yourself with a bucket and digging another pit nearby to dump the sewage in. The septic tank for our restaurant was full and it took 2 weeks to get the truck to come and pump it out. (No way was the husband going to do it himself and I don't blame him). Our customers used a bathroom in a bungalow which we kept empty for those two weeks. The toilet truck is run by the OrBorDor, an entirely useless outfit by my opinion. First they claimed it was being repaired, and then, after we saw it driving around, they said we were on the list and they would get to us. Wonder how much they wanted?

The owner of that resort is completely irresponsible and should get in trouble for his actions but perhaps he has a reason for doing so? Not a good excuse, but it might make his behavior a bit more understandable than just sheer laziness or greed.

On the waste management front, Mr Ramnate recognised Samui has been in hot water over waste problems for many years. So the focus now is on the following:

• There is a plan to add waste water treatment plants in three areas; Mae Nam Beach, Hua Thanon and Bo Phut. However, the project will cost Bt1 billion and needs government approval and support;

As I mentioned before, very difficult to find any scientific info on the samui waters. they are buried immediately. If only the authorities would spend the same amount of time on fighting pollution, and addressing environmental concerns, that they spend on squashing bad press, this country would be a shining example of good ecology. But, unfortunately, it is so common here to see energy focused on the most shallow approach available, to address an issue.

Posted

Don't think it is sewerage ! It has millions of tiny reflective flecks in it, almost metallic. Could it be result of ships ballast tank pump out !

Posted

Has anyone taken samples of this pollution for further investigation, or has it been left as it is not in the national media yet ?

Posted

It's Algae!.... a natural occurrence with or with out sewage, not hard to look up on Google! Rise is temperature is one of the courses, which fits as the sudden warm up in temperatures lately..... tidal action too...

Apparently it was on Haad Salad beach and Haad Rin beach (well that could be sewage ...whistling.gif ) a week or two ago, (Koh Phangan), for a few days and then dissipated ...

Well at least Maenam, Ban Tai and Ban Por beaches seem to be free of it! thumbsup.gif No <deleted> around here! tongue.png

Posted

I presume it gets its nutrients from the gray water which is discarded straight into the ocean by most establishments.

Posted

It's Algae!.... a natural occurrence with or with out sewage, not hard to look up on Google! Rise is temperature is one of the courses, which fits as the sudden warm up in temperatures lately..... tidal action too...

Apparently it was on Haad Salad beach and Haad Rin beach (well that could be sewage ...whistling.gif ) a week or two ago, (Koh Phangan), for a few days and then dissipated ...

Well at least Maenam, Ban Tai and Ban Por beaches seem to be free of it! thumbsup.gif No <deleted> around here! tongue.png

Its poo!!!! biggrin.png

Posted

Is it coincidence that the same thing happened at around the same time - end of high-season - on Samui, Pangan, and Phuket? In Phuket (about 3-4 weeks ago - covered here in Phuket section) both officials and folks seem to all agree that it is sewage.

Me thinks it could be:

1) Septic tanks of hotels were not discharged during the high season so tourists could enjoy clean water. By the end of high season tanks were full and were all discharged at once, making it visible (what usually is invisible due to low volume of sewage discharged).

2) Or algae grew due to higher temperatures and possibly feeding on sewage

3) Or combination of both

Oil discharge by boat is plausible, but sems unlikely since it happened at around the sme time on 3 islands.

Btw, Spidermike, thanks for info!

Posted

Went swimming on Chaweng yesterday and judging from the looks of my bikini afterwards it's algae. It was so full of the little greenish things that got into the fabric I had to actually throw it away! Came out of the water both with a filthy looking bikini and with a massive oil stain on my foot. I'll stick to the pool for a while... ;)

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa app

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

Some hotel run pipes under the sand and into the sea. Iv'e seen them.

True, one of them would be the one at the northern end of Lamai that also has a bridge of floating plastic pontoons going 50-100 meters into the sea from the beach (i would name the hotel, but probably not allowed).

Anyway, the pipe being a several inch wide concrete pipe, does anyone know what it is for. Could be sewage, but seems almost unbelievably stupid to dump sewage right in front of your own brand new hotel in the water where your own guests are swimming??

Was considering inflow/outflow for a large saltwater swimming pool, but think that is just me hoping :-(

Edited by monkeycountry
Posted

It's brown Algae.... a natural occurrence, probably due to the warmer temperatures of late... Looks worse than it really is, certainly not what anyone would want to swim in... although not poisonous... just not "appetizing" wink.png

Not all the Lamai beaches have it, but the one near where this catamaran is situated, has a lot.... down past Grand father rocks...

IMG_1799.JPG

IMG_1847.JPG

Grand father rocks area (below)

IMG_1877.JPG

The beach area around Buddies is better.... (photo below) only seaweed around there...thumbsup.gif

IMG_1750.JPG

Just have to wait to it clears.... wink.png

Seems Brown Algae is a natural occurrence and only found in colder waters

http://www.seaweed.ie/algae/phaeophyta.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_algae

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