Rayong province, Thailand: Local Thai authorities have launched a campaign to reduce the garbages which have become a serious problem on Thailand's Koh Samet island in the Eastern province of Rayong.
Khun Songtham Suksawang, Chief of Khao Laem Yah National Park on Koh Samet, said that the National Park had joined hands with the businesses, shop-owners and schools on Koh Samet island plus the Tambon Pae Administrative Office and Samet Development Association to initiate a campaign named: "Bring the garbage back to the Mainland".
The governor of Rayong province will preside over the project's opening ceremony to be held at the Hat Sai Kaew Beach, known to westerners as the Diamond Beach on Koh Samet island, on August 25 2003, he said.
The cleanup campaign is aimed at raising awareness among the local Thais and tourists on Koh Samet island to collect their garbages and to take them back to Banpae district on the mainland instead of leaving them on Koh Samet. Styrofoam materials are now also banned on the island, Songtham Suksawang said.
The tropical palm-fringed island of Koh Samet is Rayong's major attraction, with its white dazzling sandy beaches and colorful corals in crystal clear water situated around the whole island. Songtham said that a growing number of tourists were a cause of the increasing amount of garbage on the island.
On Koh Samet, the environmental problem has been aggravated in the last years and if the situation is left unsolved, then the island's natural resource and ecology system will become severely damaged, and could no more be recovered.
