15 tonnes of krathong garbage retrieved from Chiang Mai river

Prompong Boriphan, head of the maintenance division of the Chiang Mai Irrigation Office, said only three per cent of the retrieved garbage were floats made of foam and the rest were degradable natural materials.

The retrieved krattong had been floated on the Ping River in Chiang Mai’s Muang district on Lok Krathong night on Tuesday.

Prompong said officials have made panels to direct all the floated krathong to flow to the Ping Pa Daed watergate to make it convenient for workers to retrieve them from the river. He said officials started pulling out garbage from the river late on Wednesday morning.

He said Chiang Mai would be celebrating another night of the Loy Krathong festival on Wednesday and his division expects 10 more tonnes of garbage to be collected on Thursday morning.

The degradable garbage would be used to make compost while the foam garbage would be disposed of separately, he said.