Thailand's festival honoring rivers also pollutes them

Thais have flocked to rivers and lakes to release small floats adorned with flowers and candles in an annual festival honoring the goddess of water, with many of the hundreds of thousands of floats ending up clogging and polluting the country’s waterways

BANGKOK -- Thais flocked to rivers and lakes on Friday to release small floats adorned with flowers and candles in an annual festival honoring the goddess of water, with many of the hundreds of thousands of floats ending up clogging and polluting the country’s waterways.

Within hours, workers began trawling the rivers to fish out the offerings, as paying tribute to the divinity is increasingly proving to be ecologically hazardous.

The Loy Krathong festival allows believers to symbolically float their misfortunes away on “krathongs” and start another year of life with a clean slate. The festival is celebrated on the night of the full moon of the 12th lunar month, which traditionally marks the end of the rainy season.

Thon Thamrongnawasawat, a leading Thai marine biologist, said getting people to stop using harmful materials such as polystyrene foam — Styrofoam — for their floats remains the priority because they cause the most damage to the water and aquatic life. The number of endangered sea creatures found dead ashore, which he believes stems from the problem of ocean trash in Thailand, doubled from 2017 to 2020.