Water tested again as estates drained
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Health fears from Rojana, Hi-Tech run-off
The floodwaters at the Rojana and Hi-Tech industrial estates in Ayutthaya have been re-tested for fear that poor quality might endanger human health.
The result will be released next week.
Public Health Minister Witthaya Buranasiri said yesterday that the government was determined to rehabilitate the seven flooded industrial estates in Ayutthaya and Pathum Thani so that they could resume normal operations as quickly as possible.
The seven estates are Saharattakon, Rojana, Hi-Tech, Bangpa-in, Factory Land, Navanakorn and Bangkradi.
Witthaya joined the “Big Cleaning Day” campaign at Bangpa-in Industrial Estate along with senior officials to present cleaning equipment to factory operators.
The ministry assigned the Disease Control and Health departments to work with the Industry Ministry and the Natural Resource and Environment Ministry to check the quality of the water before it was pumped out of the compounds and to assess the health risk of people in surrounding communities.
The officials would mainly test for bacteria and chemical contamination. Especially if they found chemicals or metals exceeding standards then they would stop draining the water and start treating it until it was harmless, he said.
The Bt4 million project has conducted tests at Rojana, Hi-Tech, Bangpa-in and Navanakorn since last Wednesday, he said.
The ministry had tested the water at six locations inside Hi-Tech on November 9 and found the samples were within the surface water quality standard’s fourth category. That means that sources of water from certain activities could be used by people, if disinfected and specially treated, or by industry.
Copper was a little high at 0.112-0.155 milligram per litre, but it was still within the industrial wastewater standard of 2 milligrams.
Water tests at four locations in Navanakorn on October 20 measured a high degree of chloroform bacteria contamination, indicating it was polluted.
As for chemical contamination, the water samples slightly exceeded the surface water quality standard’s fourth category – with phenol and some metals, namely copper, lead and cadmium – but they were still within the industrial wastewater standards.
