The West Inn, a renowned Bangkok hotel, has been fined 10,000 baht ($320) after hundreds of used condoms bearing the hotel’s name and logo were dumped in a nearby canal – that split off from the Chao Praya river and wind through the western Bangkok Yai district.
The action was taken after a Thai Facebook user posted a series of photographs of the Yai canal – which remains a popular tourist destination due to nearby temples, mosques, markets and the informal settlements lining its banks – filled with used condoms, expressing her disappointment over the thin, latex pouches floating along the waterway with the other pieces of rubbish and plastics.
While the hotel could not be reached for comment, Sansern Ruangrit from Bangkok’s department of drainage and sewerage, said: “We have never seen such large amount of condoms dumps in khlongs (canals) before. We don’t know if it was intentional or an accident.”