Pattaya’s trash crisis bursts seams at Wat Chai

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A foreign visitor points at the huge pile of garbage in front of Wat Chai Mongkol.
A foreign visitor points at the huge pile of garbage in front of Wat Chai Mongkol.

Pattaya’s garbage crisis burst through the seams again, this time next to the revered Chaimongkol Temple where a mountain of smelly trash was left to rot.

Social media excoriated city administrators for failing to resolve its long-running rubbish problems, saying a rotting pile of garbage outside a royally designated temple and a market popular with both locals and tourists was unacceptable.

Trash pileups are nothing new at the Wat Chaimongkol Market, but vendors said the city has left them too few garbage bins, forcing them to dump trash in a pile that soon spilled into the street.

Pattaya’s contract with its current trash hauler has expired and will not be renewed as the company refuses to invest in more trucks and staff. In the interim, trash is being left to pile up around the city with officials saying all the local dumps are full and they are scrambling to find places to dispose of the waste.