PHUKET: Clean-up efforts were underway on the northwest beaches of the island late yesterday afternoon (Aug 5) to clear several oil and tar balls and traces of oil slick that had washed ashore earlier in the day.
Sirinath National Park officials designated teams to attend to beaches at Nai Yang, Mai Khao, Nai Thon and Layan to clear the pollutants that had been washed onto the sands by the ongoing southwestern monsoon.
Sorasak Rananan, Head of Sirinat National Park, revealed that he was informed by the head national park ranger at Police Station 4 at Layan Beach that a long line of black oil slick was found later yesterday afternoon.
Mr Sorasak then coordinated with the Upper Andaman Coast Marine Resources Research Center, the Region 15 (Phuket) Office of the Environment and Natural Resources and additional relevant agencies to inspect the area at Layan in addition to beaches at Nai Yang, Nai Thon and Mai Khao.
On doing so, officials discovered lumpy oil and tar balls as well as oil slicks at all destinations, samples of whch were taken in efforts to determine the exact nature of the pollutants and where they may have originated from.
Teams consisting National Park officials, lifeguards and volunteers in each of the four locations then proceeded to clear the pollutants and any other debris from the respective beaches.
National Park officials also issued a warning for people not to swim in the waters at each of the four beaches in the event excess oil slick may still be floating.
The clean-up efforts came after oil contamination was reported around noon yesterday by the Sustainable Mai Khao group. Environmental advocates based were conducting a preliminary check at Mai Khao Beach in preparation for a CSR cleanup event with 50 participants from Kearney – Management Consulting when they stumbled upon the contamination.
At around 2.40pm, Sustainable Mai Khao revealed more disconcerting revelations. Small tar balls, which are notably challenging to eliminate, were also discovered strewn across the beach.
“So sad to say – it’s back. The dreaded tar balls are back. We thought that was just an oil spill with normal oil, but it seems to be the sticky tar that we’ve encountered a few times already,” Sustainable Mai Khao reported demostrating the pollution in a live broadcast on Facebook.
