Quote:ANG THONG, AYUTTHAYA
Toxic river takes huge toll on fish farms

SUNTHORN PONGPAO and APINYA WIPATAYOTIN

Ayutthaya _ Ang Thong and Ayutthaya locals yesterday woke up to find tens of thousands of dead fish floating belly-up on a five-kilometre stretch of the Chao Phraya river.

Officials have launched an urgent investigation into the mass deaths, fearing locals and fishermen might have scooped up dead fish and prawns and delivered them to markets.

Peerapong Suwanmontree, deputy director-general of the Royal Irrigation Department, yesterday said clean water had been discharged from the Chao Phraya dam to dilute contaminated water in Ang Thong's Pa Mok district and Ayutthaya's Bang Ban district where the dead fish were found. The dilution would take a few days, he said.

He said the affected river section had an abnormally low level of dissolved oxygen, measuring just 0.5 milligrammes a litre, much lower than the normal level of at least 3mg/l.

Mr Peerapong said downstream provinces, including Pathum Thani, Nonthaburi and Bangkok, would be affected slightly by the polluted water running through them before it emptied out into the sea.

Residents suspect the river was polluted, either by a recent boat accident which caused a molasses leak, or by untreated waste discharged from a monosodium glutamate factory in Pa Mok district.

Hardest hit were more than 200 taptim fish farms in Ang Thong, where about 8,000 tonnes of fish died, costing each farmer from 500,000 to two million baht.

Bangkok Post March 13, 2007

Quote:Chao Phraya fish killed by contamination

Hundreds of thousands of freshwater fish in commercial fishfarms along the Chao Phraya River in central Thailand died overnight Sunday.

Fish farmers upriver in Ang Thong and Ayutthaya provinces were shocked to find large numbers of fish in their bamboo fish-farming cages along the Chao Phraya had died in massive numbers for unknown reasons.

Some farmers believe that the large scale deaths resulted from water pollution caused by factories, while others are pointing to a sugar barge which sank upstream on March 3. Authorities are now
investigating the actual cause of the fish losses.

Four industrial factories located upstream along the river are suspected by some to have released some contaminated water into the river, causing water pollution that may have killed the fish.

Nevertheless, some farmers were convinced that their fish were killed by contamination from a barge carrying 6,000 sacks of sugar that sank over a week ago.

Pollution Control Department director-general Suphat Wangwongwattana pledged that the results of the investigation will be announced as soon as the actual cause is confirmed.

Supporting Mr. Suphat's statement, Marine Department director-general Prasong Tanmaneewattana said a team of experts had been assigned to collect Chao Phraya water sample for laboratory tests. Once the result comes out, those responsible will be subject to prosecution.

Meanwhile, Metropolitan Waterworks Authority (MWWA) deputy governor Wutichai Rangsiyawath said that should the deaths be due to sugar contamination, water-borne bacteria will accelerate the sugar's dissolution.

MWWA workers are on alert, preparing for the arrival of contaminated water in Bangkok.

If necessary, Mr. Suphat said, he will order the closure of the water gate in Pathum Thani province adjacent to Bangkok until the contaminated water flows past it.

Water supply in metropolitan Bangkok relies on water from the Chao Phraya River. (TNA)

Bangkok Post March 13, 2007


Fish raiser Noppin Khomkhai of Ang Thong with a huge stack of dead taptim fish she scooped out of her breeding baskets along the river bank. About 200 fish farmers along the Chao Phraya river found their fish floating belly-up on the surface yesterday. — SUNTHORN PONGPAO - Bangkok Post March 12, 2007
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Quote:Factory accused over fish deaths

SUNTHON PONGPAO

Ang Thong _ About 200 fish farmers rallied in front of a Japanese-owned monosodium glutamate factory yesterday, accusing the management of discharging wastewater and causing a huge number of fish deaths in the Chao Phraya river. The enraged farmers made piles of dead fish they scooped from their breeding pens and set them on fire and blocked the KTMSG Co's entrance in protest.

They vowed to continue the protest until the authorities turn up to inspect the factory's wastewater drainage system.

The villagers suspect that the incident, described as the province's most serious pollution disaster, was caused by untreated wastewater discharged by KTMSG and other factories located on the banks of the Chao Phraya river in Pa Mok district.

Apichai Noiwong, a KTMSG executive, strongly denied the allegation, saying that the factory had never discharged any contaminated water into the river.

The firm was ready for an inspection by state officials, said Mr Apichai.

''As the factory is located about a kilometre away from the river, it does not make any sense for it to release wastewater into the river, he said.

''Please give us some justice.

''There are more than 10 other factories and a pier operating in the district. All should be inspected,'' Mr Apichai said.

The polluted stretch of water, which has killed hundreds of thousands of fish since Sunday, yesterday quickly made its way from Ang Thong province to the neighbouring province of Ayutthaya, where it killed dense schools of fish which are magnets at riverside temples for both tourists and merit-makers.

When the dark green water and its terrible stench reached Ayutthaya's Bang Ban, Bang Pa-in, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya, and Bang Sai districts yesterday, the provincial governor immediately declared the four districts disaster zones. The canals connecting Ang Thong and Ayutthaya have also been contaminated.

Thongram Silawat, the fishery chief of Ayutthaya, said water animals have been completely wiped out along a 20km stretch of the Chao Phraya river from Ang Thong to Ayutthaya.

''This is a great loss because all kinds of water animals are dead,'' he said.

Srinual Ha-angkab, who had the biggest taptim fish farm in Bang Ban district, complained that she and her fellow fish farmers had suddenly amassed a debt of 500,000 baht to a million baht each due to their fish dying in such huge numbers.

Ms Srinual said she believed the untreated wastewater from factories was to blame for the incident as the hardest-hit fish farms were located near a cluster of riverside factories.

Fisheries chief Jaranthada Karnasuta said the department had been evaluating the scale of damage and a compensation scheme was being worked out for the affected fish farmers.

The department was also preparing to file civil and criminal lawsuits against the polluters for causing the deaths of water animals, he said.

The Public Health Ministry, meanwhile, warned the people not to eat the dead fish scooped up for sale.

Initial laboratory tests showed yesterday that the water and the fish were free of toxic chemicals and pesticides.

But the ministry, not convinced by the lab results, instructed the Medical Science Department to conduct another test to see whether the samples contain any lethal heavy metals, said permanent secretary for public health Prat Boonyawongvirote.

Deputy Industry Minister Piyabutr Cholvijarn said officials only know that lack of oxygen contributed to the fish deaths.

He said the ministry had been looking into two potential causes of the incident, including a boat accident and wastewater discharge from four large factories producing textiles, carbon black, paper and monosodium glutamate.

Bangkok Post March 14
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This sounds bad. Hundreds of thousands of fish dead? It`ll take some serious clean up work to get things back to normal which won`t happen overnight that`s for sure.

Reports are that fish are still dying as the polluted waters move downstream. They tried to dillute the water with fresh water from a reservoir - it turned out to be a waste of the water badly needed in the dry season that's approaching.
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