Waste water is released daily into the sea off Krabi province, a major coastal attraction in southern Thailand, only to spoil tourist industry and environment.

Hotels, lodgings and restaurants in coastal provincial seat of Krabi, about 800 km south of Bangkok, currently release up to 2,000 cubic meters of waste water daily into a canal which directly flows into Ao Nang bay area, said Pankam Kittitorakul, head of the Ao Nang County Administrative Organization, on Friday.

Tourism sector and environment are being adversely affected by the polluted water throughout the bay area where no waste water treatment has been available as yet, he said.

The local authorities had called on the owners and operators of hotels, resort houses and restaurants to stop releasing waste water for which they had been strongly advised to install a treatment system but they did not seem to cooperate, according to the county head.

He added that the administrative unit earlier sought some 8.5 million U.S. dollars in funding for procurement of a waste water treatment system which is yet to be provided from Krabi province.