On Tuesday, the mayor of a tourist seaside town said city authorities are sweeping up garbage at Bang Saen beach after a British blogger shared pictures of beach waste there, which quickly went viral on social media.
The mayor of Saen Suk municipality, Narongchai Khunplome, also denied the argument that visitors were littering the beach in a liberal way. He said that most of the trash seen in the pictures was discarded by local ites into rivers and the sea, and then transported by ocean current to Bang Saen.
"We clean it up each day," Narongchai said Tuesday by phone. "Some of the garbage emerges from the ocean and then into the beach washes up. Just about 30 per cent were visitor dust.
British expat Richard Barrow shared pictures of the trash-shocked Bang Sean beach on Friday. Narongchai later posted on his Facebook that the occurrence happens owing to southwestern monsoon winds each year from July through September.
"Ever since I was little, I've seen this amount of trash. It hasn't diminished at all, "wrote Narongchai. "Because of the heavy winds and large waves some days have massive quantities of garbage."
Much of the waste is tracked to the estuary of Chao Phraya, which runs into the Gulf of Thailand.
"Garbage falls from the water, from citizens dumping garbage through canals and roads throughout the region and winding up in the harbor," wrote the Mayor. "That really will improve. Bad Bang Saen, who can be the garbage behind all of this.
A female sea turtle with more than 200 eggs has died from ingesting too much plastic on Bang Saen Island, Narongchai reported.
Barrow tweeted his worry on Saturday that his photos could trigger him difficulty renewing his visa.
"Memo to future self: Seek and don't write something negative two weeks before your stay in Thailand ends," he said.
Narongchai, though, said by phone that he did not harbor any grudge against the Briton.
"I had sort of a more political-page problem that reshared the message, not Richard himself," said the mayor.
Bang Saen beach reopened in June, after months of closure due to the coronavirus pandemic, along with other beaches in the Chonburi area.
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