Chief of garbage transport
Nattapol Theeerawutworawet (left) explains the current situation to city
officials.
Phasakorn Channgam
Krathinglai residents again are pleading with city officials to
do something about the putrid odors emitting from the city’s
garbage-separation station.
More than 1,200 tons of rubbish have accumulated at the Soi Sukhumvit 3
facility after Khao Maikaew permanently closed the city’s main dump.
Pattaya officials said they began looking for a new landfill site in
September and have left the refuse to rot in Krathinglai since,
infuriating neighbors.
Pattaya City Councilman Amnuai Somphongtham, who represents the
neighborhood, said Krathinglai’s village chief sent a letter to Mayor
Itthiphol Kunplome complaining about the increasingly foul odor
emanating from the yard and promised, once again, to knock down the
smell.
Village residents staged a protest in March, complaining that the
Pattaya Muang Sa-ad Joint Venture-operated facility has stunk up their
neighborhood for five years. At the time, Muang Sa-ad Manager Pornlert
Prittiannant said renovations were being made to the front of the
station that would prevent some odor from escaping into the community.
Deputy Mayor Wutisak Rermkitkarn also promised to dispatch Pattaya
Public Health Department to spray disinfectant to clear the smell, at
least temporarily.
Apparently, either those measures weren’t taken or
have had no effect.
As in March, the problem stems with Pattaya’s year-long dispute with
Khao Maikaew, where 400 tons of Pattaya trash goes a day. Late last year
neighbors started barricading the entrance to the dump to protest
extra-stinky garbage deposits from Koh Larn. At the time, community
leaders insisted all waste come from mainland Pattaya only, not the
island, as its long transport makes the rotting trash even more pungent.
Intermittent blockades became temporary closures which became a
permanent closure. Pattaya politicians in September said they inked
agreements with the Najomtien and Laem Chabang sub-districts to share
their dumps, but two months later, those agreements remain just one more
broken promise.
Amnuai now says the city is close to agreements with Laem Chabang and
Sriracha to take the city’s backed-up trash. But, he said, Sriracha
officials are insisting Pattaya manage that district’s garbage if it
wants to use that district’s dump. Pattaya officials so far have balked.
The councilman tried to assuage angry residents by pledging that,
despite the current obstacles, the problem would be resolved by the end
of November.
In the interim, chief of garbage transport Nattapol Theeerawutworawet
said city workers will try a new germicide and deodorizer that is hoped
to work better than earlier treatments of the Krathinglai facility.
Spraying will be done each time a new load is piled on the existing
backlog, he said.
