Residents of many villages, within a radius of about a kilometre of a landfill in Choeng Doi sub-district of Chiang Mai, have been complaining about the foul smell from a garbage dump which, they claim, is so strong that they are forced to wear face masks almost all day and to keep all doors and windows closed.
They are also complaining about the swarms of flies attracted by the dump.
About 30,000 tonnes of garbage, collected from 10 districts, are in the landfill in Village 11 and that amount is increasing by 400 tonnes every day. The garbage management centre, operated by Chiang Mai Provincial Administrative Organisation (PAO), is, however, only capable of disposing of a maximum of 250 tonnes/day.
Somchart Wattanakla, vice mayor of the Chiang Mai PAO, said that they have sought cooperation from garbage collection companies by limiting the amount of trash dumped at the landfill to 300 tonnes per day.
He also said that the companies were also told to deploy fire trucks and drones to spray EM, which helps to increase beneficial soil micro-organisms and supresses of harmful ones, onto the mountain of trash, adding that the Chiang Mai PAO will build a high wall, to prevent wind from carrying the foul smell to villages around the landfill.
The Ministry of Interior has recently approved Chiang Mai PAO’s plan to build a garbage-fuelled power plant, with a capacity to dispose of about 650 tonnes of garbage per day.
The garbage will be separated into that which is to be recycled into compost and non-degradable trash, which will be burned as fuel for the power plant.
