Over 100 tonnes of garbage estimated near Phuket Fishing Port

Over 100 tonnes of garbage are estimated to have accumulated in a village near Phuket Fishing Port in Ratsada. The garbage has been building up for over 20 years and was recently brought to light through social media posts.

The director-general of the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR), Atthaphon Charoenchansa, visited the village yesterday. Attaphon spoke to villagers about keeping their village clean. According to a report by PR Phuket, most of the villagers are migrants from Myanmar.

The report noted that Ratsada Municipality used to collect garbage from the site, but much of the village’s waste is from people dumping trash into seawater. It also noted that fixing the problem will depend on residents’ awareness. The report said…

“In the past, the residents were unaware that wherever you throw away trash, the amount of waste increases rapidly. After this, if they don’t help each other take care, the authorities will have to enforce the law.”

Meanwhile, Ratsada Mayor Nakarin Yosaengrat organised municipality workers to conduct a “Big Cleaning Day” during Attaphon’s visit to the village.

The report said that Ratsada Municipality will hire a private company to remove the garbage. The next step would control the residence of foreign workers since they were living together in a densely populated area, the report said.

Several areas of Phuket (and Thailand as a whole) struggle with pollution.

In July, Phuket’s city mayor asked residents in three target areas of the island province’s main city district to stop throwing rubbish in canals.

There have been several campaigns to tackle pollution in Phuket, but the province has a long way to go. Not only is pollution a massive eyesore for beach-goers, but it also hurts, and even kills wildlife. Sea turtles and dolphins regularly get caught in discarded fishing nets. In July, a dead sea turtle that washed up on Mai Khao Beach was found to have plastic lodged in its mouth and throat, which was most likely the cause of its death.

The stormy waves during Thailand’s monsoon season often cause trash to wash up on Phuket’s shores. Phuket does not yet have a special marine service to collect rubbish from beaches, so regular cleanups are the only way the island province can reduce garbage.