Chiang Mai aims to remove over 30,000 tonnes of garbage by October-end
Officials dealing with huge piles of furniture damaged by flood, bedding and clothes from people’s homes
The Chiang Mai Provincial Administrative Organisation (PAO) expects to get rid of over 30,000 tonnes of garbage left behind by flooding by the end of October as part of its attempt to clean up the northern tourist province.
Although the floodwaters from several provinces in Northern Thailand since last month have already subsided, provincial officials still need to fix damaged facilities as well as deal with huge piles of garbage, mostly flood-damaged furniture, bedding and clothes from people’s homes.
The PAO said on Friday that it had been using a 62-rai (9.92 hectares) public park in Muang district as a temporary dumping site for garbage trucks to bring all the waste from around the city to one single location.
The garbage will be sorted and disposed of according to safety and health standards. The operation started on October 10 and is expected to finish by the end of this month, said PAO chairman Pichai Lertpongadisorn.
He added that the park was donated to the PAO by the State Railway of Thailand to develop into a fully-equipped public park, but the project has been put on hold due to the flooding.
Pichai said the PAO has hired private truck companies to carry the sorted garbage to either landfill sites or waste disposal centres. Currently there are about 1,000 tonnes of garbage being brought in each day, and about 500 tonnes are being carried out daily.
He estimated that total garbage left behind by the floods in Chiang Mai at 30,000 to 40,000 tonnes, adding that so far about 20,000 tonnes have been brought to the park.
The PAO would resume the park improvement project immediately after all the garbage is disposed of, he said.
