Ralf Benko and his team have been travelling around the world and ?saving holidays? since the German TV show ?Wir retten ihren urlaub? (We Save Your Holiday) first aired in 2004.

The team of documentary makers typically go to places where German nationals vacation and have complained about or where they have gotten ill or into trouble.

?Holidaymakers contact us, either through the hotline or our email address, and after we do some preliminary research, we travel to that particular destination to see what has happened,? said Ralf.

On one occasion the team went to Greece to respond to complaints that a particular hotel?s guests had been subject to a lot of thefts, they managed to get the tour operators to recompense the guests.

?Our main aim is to help tourists, whether that is in small cases or much larger ones.?

A larger one that Ralf remembers and is clearly a source of pride is at a resort in Turkey, a place that he has visited on numerous occasions

Almost 100 people had become seriously ill after swimming in the seawater nearby that resort. After investigating and taking numerous water samples, the show aired on German TV reporting its findings.

?Soon after we broadcast, visitor numbers went dramatically down so the authorities realised they needed to do something,? explained Ralf.

When ?Wir retten ihren urlaub? returned a year later, the Governor showed them new water samples and the problem was fixed and water became much cleaner.

?This is the investigative element of what we do. We watch and investigate the problem and see whether it is responsibly acted upon and whether people try to improve it,? added Ralf.

A few months ago Ralf Benko came to Phuket?

Ralk recounted how he first heard of Phuket's particular problem,?We received a few complaints and messages from tourists and also locals that they had noticed problems and had reported that some of the water from the river and canals flowing into Kata and Karon and parts of Patong beach was brown, with foam and smelled bad.?

When they arrived in March, they were unsurprised to see the tell-tale signs of pollution in the waters and so based on their previous experience they knew something was wrong, subsequent water samples confirmed their suspicions.

?We got water samples from four areas on Kata, Karon and Patong beach and found high levels of bacteria and pollution in most samples, most notably high was the stretch of Karon beach nearby the wastewater treatment plant.?

?We staked out the tank / wastewater treatment system for 24 hours; all through the night and day. During the day right in front of the tourists, the hatch and concentrated water came rushing out, with children and families playing around the discharge ? that was the most shocking thing to me.?

Case closed. Problem identified. The team at Wir retten ihren urlaub, packed up and left Phuket, but fortunately that was not the end of the story?

?Our job is not to just condemn or pass judgement; we attempt to identify a problem and raise its awareness so a solution may be found. It?s not easy finding a solution, it's sometimes very difficult, but it does need to happen.?

So the team edited a small video with its findings, explanations and suggestions and sent it to the Tourism Authority of Thailand who then sent it to the Governor of Kata/Karon and other relevant authorities.

They also asked for an opportunity to return to Phuket in 3 months time to see if any progress had been made.

A few days before the German TV documentary makers returned, the outlet where polluted water flows out was given a fresh coat of paint.

On 6 June, Ralf and the team were granted a meeting between the Maor of Kata/Karon and president of the Hotel Association of Kata/Karon. The first point that was raised was that based on the water samples, although the levels of pollution would fail international standards, it did in fact comply with local standards.

During the meeting, the authorities admitted that there were times that the aforementioned outlet pumped out waste water into the sea, but that it happened rarely.

Karon Mayor Thawee Thongcham stated three reasons why that may happen.

During blackouts and when the electricity cuts out, the pump ceases to work. They have now solved this issue by installing an emergency cable that connects to the emergency generators at the Municipality.

Rainfall: When it rains the tubes/pumps are not big enough. The municipality plan to add a deviation system in place so that by the end of October the rain will be deviated away from the tanks.

Insufficient Cleaning Facility: Not capable of treating all the water. The current system can treat only 6,000 cubic metres a day; however they need to be treating up to 10,000 metres. Again the Municipality have admitted that they need to improve these facilities, but need money to do so. They estimate the work will be finished by 2013.

After the meeting concluded, Ralf accompanied the Mayor to put up a symbolic sign at the Karon outlet that warned people in the vicinity that spillage and overflow could occur.

Speaking exclusively to the Post on his return visit, Ralf said that he was optimistic, but not because he believed the problem would be immediately rectified. ?I?m optimistic that they have accepted that there is a problem and claimed responsibility for it. This is the first step, but they still need to make clean water, this water is NOT clean.?

Showing the Post a water sample collected from the spot nearby the Karon outlet, Ralf explained that although there was still unacceptable levels of bacteria, it was cleaner than the samples he had taken 3 months previously.

For the time being then, Ralf is placated but not entirely satisfied, ?I will be happy when the case has been resolved the same as we saw in Turkey, but right now it would be wrong for me to say you must have 100% clean water and therefore because you do not, you are bad. Phuket needs time.?

This is one of the main reasons that the broadcast date of the Phuket edition of ?Wir retten ihren urlaub? has been delayed until mid-July.

?If it?s a big problem, we wait for a reaction from the relevant authorities to see if anything will actually happen and if the situation actually improves.

?Conversely it depends on whether it?s causing a danger for anybody, if so we broadcast it immediately,? said Ralf.

When the German TV show?s initial visit was reported in the Phuket media, many feared that such a show would have a negative impact on Phuket tourism.
Ralf admits that during his many years doing the show, although he has been offered and refused countless bribes, he has never even considered not running a particular story at a person?s request or felt in real danger.

?This is my project and I have been doing it for many years, I?ve never felt in danger but I now know how far to push something. Nobody dares to ask me not to do a particular story. We wish to help the tourists and the argument that we may affect the tourism industry is void because the particular problems are already doing this.?

So will Ralf and his team be back? ?All depends on what happens,? said Ralf with a promising smile, "I want the Post readers to keep me informed if they see or smell anything unpleasant in the future.?