Up To One Million Fish Found Dead In Thai River
Pastor Dale Morgan
Up To One Million Fish Found Dead In Thai River*
by Staff Writers
Bangkok (AFP) Mar 13, 2007
Hundreds of thousands of farmed fish have been found dead in one of
Thailand's key rivers, the fisheries department said Tuesday, prompting
fears that factories were polluting the waterway. Parts of the central
provinces of Ang Thong and Ayutthaya along the Chao Phraya river were
officially declared disaster zones Tuesday, after the fish started dying
there on Sunday night.
Officials said they were still trying to determine what had caused the
deaths of up to one million caged tubtim fish, a type of tilapia, at
different locations along the river about 100 kilometres (60 miles)
north of Bangkok.
Jaranthada Karnsasuta, director general of the fisheries department,
said a sudden lack of oxygen in the water killed the fish.
"Oxygen in water is very poor. Some reported zero to 0.5 percent of
oxygen in the water, while fish need more than three percent to
survive," he told AFP.
He said they were currently investigating two possible explanations --
that a sugar boat which capsized earlier this month released toxic
byproducts into the river, or that upstream factories had polluted the
waterway.
Local villagers and farmers suspect that factories, including one that
produces the food additive monosodium glutamate, had released untreated
water into the Chao Phraya, which flows down to the capital Bangkok,
Jaranthada said.
It was less likely to have been caused by the capsized boat, he said, as
the accident happened March 3 and the fish would have been affected earlier.
The Ministry of Agriculture will compensate fish farmers for their
losses, which total about 40 million baht (1.3 million dollars),
Jaranthada said.
An official in Ang Thong told AFP that the public health ministry had
reassured him that the dead fish were not poisonous to humans, but added
that they would be buried rather than entering the food chain.
Jaranthada said that the quality of water on the affected stretch of the
Chao Phraya was improving after the irrigation department released clean
water from an upstream dam.
Source: Agence France-Presse