Walking Street business owners are demanding to know why it took two days for city workers to fix a broken valve that flooded the southern end of Pattaya’s main entertainment area with raw sewage.
A steady flow of putrid effluent covered Walking Street and Soi 16 between the popular Nang Nual seafood restaurant and the Covent Garden go-go bar complex Aug. 29-30, leaving tourists fleeing hands over faces and bars and restaurants empty.
Tourists point to the putrid leaking pipes. It took two days for the city to respond to this environmental mini-catastrophe.
It took until mid-day Aug. 30 for Wastewater Treatment Plant Manager Thaen Sengchit to order workers to investigate the broken pipe. The problem turned out to be a high-pressure valve that burst, creating an open spigot of sewage destined for the Soi Buakaow plant. The pipeline was shut down until the valve could be repaired.
Business owners were enraged that the city officials who pay so much lip service to tourism promotion couldn’t be bothered for 48 hours to solve a sewage leak that posed serious risks to both people’s health and the city’s main industry.
