Patong starts cleaning up its act
Patong officials led another ‘Big Cleaning Day’ last week as part of the ongoing campaign to clean up the town, and some of its ugliest features, continues.
Highlight of the event, on Feb 16, was the mass cleaning of Bangla Rd, touted as conducted in order “to build confidence in tourists… as the number of people in Phuket infected [with COVID-19] increases.”
A fire truck was deployed to hose down the popular nightlife street with sanitiser while staff, workers from Patong Municipality and the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation (PPAO, or OrBorJor), members of the public and volunteers from the Patong Development Foundation and Patong the Entertainment Business Association (PEBA) joined together to clean common areas and establishments along the street
“As Phuket still has a large number of COVID-19 cases, it is necessary to have measures to build confidence in the service for economic recovery to move forward in parallel with disease control,” said a report by the Phuket office of the Public Relations Department (PR Phuket).
“There were still many foreign tourists coming to the beach for activities such as sunbathing, swimming in the sea and exercising or playing water sports while officials did the activity,” the report said, though photos posted with the announcement showed otherwise.
“After two years of no customers there are more establishments, which are ‘half restaurants’ [sic] and pubs in Bangla Rd, that are open for service,” the report added, not recognising that entertainment businesses must still close early under current COVID-19 restrictions.
The report continued its call for business operators to continue to uphold COVID-19 Free Setting measures in the hopes of limiting the spread of infections across the island.
The report did note that the number of infections in the Bangla area had “decreased significantly”.
Meanwhile, before the tourists took to Patong Beach, municipality workers in the morning had already conducted a mass cleaning of the beach, removing hundreds of garbage bags filled with trash, litter and other waste gathered from the sand.
Mass cleanings have become a regular occurrence under new Patong Mayor Chalermsak Maneesri, who has launched an intensive campaign to clean up the town.
Popular local tourist sites have been renovated and painted in bright colours to make the town more attractive, while more serious efforts in keeping Patong clean have been quietly underway, including the clearing of roadside drains and litter clearing drives continuing throughout the town, and even broken street lights repaired.
Yet another algae bloom in Patong Bay late last month is being taken seriously.
Unlike previous administrations, Patong Municipality under Mayor Chalermsak openly recognises the recurring algae blooms as caused by “activated sludge”.
Patong environmental health officials noted that the conditions were very suitable for such a bloom to occur, “namely temperature, sunlight and nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus compounds) present in the water”.
“In addition, Patong Beach is like a closed bay, causing the accumulation of nutrients as well,” the health officials noted.
“The bloom caused no mass deaths of aquatic animals in the area and nearby, but may affect the beach, it is not beautiful,” said a report by Patong Municipality.
“There have never been any reports of poisoning,” it added.
“Patong Municipality has cleaned algae from Patong Beach and increased preventive measures to reduce important factors of algae growth by controlling the drainage of wastewater into water sources,” Patong health officials noted.
“Patong Municipality’s wastewater treatment system is an activated sludge treatment system that uses aerobic microorganisms to decompose organic matter in wastewater.
“Water that has undergone wastewater treatment before draining into Pak Bang Canal will pass the criteria of the sewerage control standard from the collective wastewater treatment system of the community in accordance with Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment requirements,” officials added.
The values of impurities in the form of BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand), suspended solids, oil, fat, acid-base, nitrogen and phosphorus, are all monitored, the municipal health officials assured.
A large-scale project to expand the processing capability of the Patong Wastewater Plant is underway, and has been for many months.
Meanwhile, an intensive campaign to upgrade, renovate and repair existing drains throughout the town is underway, and has been since last year.
Workers have been clearing blocked drains, installing new drains, and installing new grates and drain covers to make them more effective and safer for pedestrians.