Following an explosion and fire at a chemical warehouse in Thailand, there are calls for buffer zones to separate industrial areas from tourist areas.
Tourism operators in Thailand’s Rayong province have called for buffer zones to clearly separate industrial areas from tourist zones, as this week’s explosion at a chemical warehouse in the province has negative consequences similar to two previous oil spills.
The fire at an industrial waste warehouse owned by Win Process in Rayong’s Bankhai district broke out on Monday. It took more than 24 hours to bring the disaster under control.
Rayong Tourism Board president Suwanna Doty said accidents involving chemical spills have happened many times in Rayong, but the province has yet to learn from previous incidents.
‘We demand the government create buffer zones separating industrial areas from local and tourist areas,’ Suwanna said.
‘The province must also prepare equipment and plans for immediate emergency response because in previous cases, we had to wait too long to stop the damage from industrial accidents such as oil spills that have severely damaged marine resources.’
This week’s explosion may not immediately affect tourist sentiment as many tourists finished celebrating Songkran, known as the Van Lai water festival, last weekend,’ Suwanna said.
However, if those responsible, including the refinery owner and the government, do not take urgent action to address the negative effects, especially those related to health issues, the province will be seriously affected, according to Suwanna. This happened during the spills from Star Petroleum Refining’s 2022 pipeline and PTT Global Chemical’s pipeline in 2013.
Average hotel occupancy this week has dropped to 50-60 percent compared to pre-explosion levels,’ Suwanna said. With the fruit season approaching, tourists often want to visit durian farms in Rayong, and this latest incident will drive them away from the province.
‘We saw many expatriates and long-term visitors to Chiang Mai moving to Rayong because of dangerous smog levels. Rayong will face the same departure if it does not learn from previous incidents,’ Suwanna said.
Provincial authorities should speed up the development of a plan to protect the health of residents in affected areas and prepare public announcements on the consequences, as not all Rayong regions are affected by the fires,’ Suwanna said. Many tourist spots are more than 100 kilometres away from the warehouse.
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