Who’s keeping Thailand’s beaches clean?

PHOTO: Daily News

Every week there are volunteers heading to the beaches of Phuket to pick up rubbish, mostly washed ashore and landing on the beaches. Some of it has washed out Phuket’s drains and just making its way back to shore. Other rubbish comes from passing boats and fishing fleets.

One group, Clean The Beach Bootcamp, organised bi-weekly by Phuket expat and businessman Krix Luther, has been operating for four years and picked up hundreds of tonnes of rubbish. Plenty of other community and school groups organise regular clean ups. But should expats and tourists be the ones picking up the rubbish off Thai beaches?

PHOTO: Clean The Beach BootCamp

Ironically, the OrBorTors and Provincial Hall also organise occasional volunteer beach clean-ups, the very people who should be organising and budgeting to keep the beaches clean in the first place.

Why is one of Thailand’s main tourist attractions and resources – it’s beautiful beaches – left to volunteers to clean whilst the authorities care little until it gets so bad a post in Trip Advisor or Facebook spurs them into shame-induced action?

Why don’t the locals, the major beneficiaries of the income from tourism, do something about keeping their own beaches clean?

Over on the Gulf of Thailand, Daily News is reporting that two Swiss tourists were going the extra mile to clear up the beach at Samui this week.

But two local officials had a go at their litter tossing compatriots saying they should be ashamed that tourists were clearing up their mess.

The media met up with the two Swiss ladies who they called 23 year old Fabian and 31 year old Jamin.

Fabian said they love Samui and were spurred into action as trash blew along Ban Beach, Mae Nam and washed in from the sea. So they asked the bungalow where they were staying for bin bags and picked up the rubbish over a five kilometer stretch.

Their haul included plastic, foam and bottles.

Local officials Phumin and Thepasak called in Daily News and were also on hand to help. They gave the ladies some refreshing coconut water to thank them for their efforts.

But they condemned the locals in Koh Samui who they said should be ashamed of themselves to see tourists who had come so far having to act as trash collectors after they had messed up their own. environment.

Daily News praised the tourists calling their actions “very impressive”.

So who should be keeping Thailand’s beaches clean? Shouldn’t OrBorTors invest in beach-cleaning machines and make it a priority rather than expecting tourists and volunteers to keep the beaches clean?