More than 30 tons of debris and garbage was removed from the sea during operations to clean up the coastal area in the six provinces hit by the tsunami last month, a senior official of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said.

The Ministry's Department of Marine and Coastal Resources Director General Maitree Duangsawat was quoted by the Thai News Agency as saying Tuesday that the department, together with public and private sectors, carried out two clean up operations from Jan.9 to Jan. 14.

During the first clean up operation at Ao Ton Sai in Phi Phi Island, Krabi province, he said, 230 volunteers collected 3 tons of debris around coral reefs. He said this was only 10 percent of the total debris swept into the sea during the disaster on Dec. 26.

"Items collected were mostly pieces of wood from wrecked buildings; pieces of metal; electrical appliances, including television sets, refrigerators, and gas stoves and household garbage," he said.

The director general said that in the second operation in the same area, volunteers collected around 28 tons of debris and rubbish, which was mostly household garbage.

(Xinhua News Agency January 18, 2005)