Who specifically to complain to about burning

[watgate]

I am residing in an apt complex not far from Pantip Plaza and once or twice a week for the past few weeks a neighbor who owns a house right behind the apt complex is burning leaves and other stuff usually around 6:30-7:00 in the morning. It is no wonder no Thai folks will complain but I am tired of breathing this smoke and foul air. I was wondering if anyone knows who I can complain to and if they know a specific government or police office to complain to. If you have a phone number that would be great or should I go to the appropriate office in person. This months Citylife magazine had a front page article on burning and they said the authorities do care about this burning so I want to file a complaint. Any contact info would be much appeciated.

[Thailand]

Get a local to do it on your behalf. Maybe apt complex management.

Not a good idea to make complaints under your own name here. Generally the local govt "burning" action is lots of talk and little action.

Edited February 9, 2016 by Thailand

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Usually they wait for the seasonal haze to kick in before opening a phone number to report the insignificant (relatively speaking) and largely unrelated local residential burning. (Which of course goes on year round as you have noticed, any time that is not too wet)

No matter, the authorities will think they're the same and think they're doing something, and you get to teach that dude who burns a lesson, so everyone (thinks they) win.

Great time to take action the coming weeks. Ask k.Pim at CityLife? Likely any older numbers to call you find in the internet will be fruitless.. You can also try at your sub district office, or the provincial pollution control office.

(Cycisism aside, I do think it's worth pursuing. I would too if someone was burning near my house)

Edited February 9, 2016 by WinnieTheKhwai

[Bill97]

Talk to God.

[slerickson]

It was posted elsewhere on Thai to call 191 the emergency number.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

It was posted elsewhere on Thai to call 191 the emergency number.

I didn't search for a reference yet but I'm quite sure that's a *really* bad idea even if there is a reference to such advice coming from someone in government/some dude in alleged authority.

Imagine what this is going to do when Johnny Farlung calls 191 in his best Tinglish, reporting what sounds like a fire.

(Calling 191 is a good idea for a very large/potentially out of control fire. It's not when Auntie Som burns some leaves out back. Emergency numbers are for emergencies. While I don't doubt that they're are sufficiently retarded officials around to advise this on record, that doesn't make it a good idea for minor residential burning.)

Edited February 9, 2016 by WinnieTheKhwai

[keo]

Contact your local Teseban or Obodor.

[Sparkles]

The facebook site "Fire Reports Chiang Mai" last season identified the CM Office of Environmental Protection phone no 053 112 725 as the number to call.

Guess it hasn't changed but you would need to speak Thai I would think.

[Cpkt8]

If you're able to take pictures of the burnings, with concrete proof you're at better advantage to complain to relevant authorities?

[Stopthesmoke]

My wife works for the POSD ( Permanent Office for the Secretary of Defence ) in Nonthaburi. For the last 3 months we have literally started a war against illegal haze. We have contacted the office of the NCPO abput 50 times in theblast 3 months regarding illegal fires popping up all over Nonthaburi. We live in the newly built soldier apartment building, which is the tallest building here until Thammasat University. The Thai government is taking this issue very seriously, but we as foreigners need to understand that Thailand has not been concerned with the damage of smoke pollution for many decades, not all countries are as concerned as foreign countries. The current laws are being revised with regards to pollution, but it is a big process.

Thailand aims at keeping it's promises in accordance with the UN climate meeting which was was held in Paris.

The government of Thailand needs our help. So I personally suggest that instead of complaining about issues in Thailand, start discussing solutions on how to make Thailand a better, cleaner country.

The Thais are new at the entire heatlh awareness thing,but trust me, they are trying to cope with the seriousness of the pollution problem.

The police don't even want to respond to the illegal burning of waste calls anymore, due to the fact that there are such a large number of Thai locals who are unaware of the damage they are causing to the natural state of the human health and of nature itself. Various police stations have told us to contact the department of pollution and disease control, but even they failed to put a lid on the large amounts of haze occuring, due to the fact that the people who cause this, refuse to listen to the warning even from the law enforcers, instead they relocate their waste to a different area and continue with their destructive behaviour.

To be able to report this, you would need to ask your wife to politely contact the office of the NCPO and tell them about your pollution concerns. Be very exact about the facts and make sure that you know the times it occurs and the precise location of these occurences. We have discovered the large amounts of burning occurs during midnight hours until the morning hours around 7 am. These are the times when most of us humans with health concerns do not see the smoke or where exactly it comes from.

We recently even requested and investigation into a factory that produces books for government schools around the entire country, as it starting burning dark black diesel like smoke with a massive mushroom cloud every night after midnight until 6am. This factory was located 1km away from us, but due to the fact that our building is so high, all the smoke pollution ends up inside all of our condos. They angered over 2000 soldiers and their families with the smoke. So we decided to prove our concerns by getting a petition with signatures and emailing it to the NCPO's online messaging service.

There is a massive survey currently ongoing with regards to the illegal burning of toxic and household waste, but the government is currently flooded with work. We need more support, people who can start calling and reporting various locations where it is confirmed that burning is illegal. If possible even come up with some suggestions on how to make Thai people aware of the consequences of burning waste in residential areas.

We literally drove out and took videos after we reported a massive burning session in Nonthaburi, underneath a highway. This highway is used daily buy royalty and high government officials, which makes the response to this kind of pollution quite satisfactory. We didn't defame anybody, but we only made the government aware of how big the problem actually was. So instead of defaming people by using names and pointing fingers. Get visual proof and then have someone forward it to the NCPO messaging service.

We have failed at every attempt when contacting the fire station, the local police stations and even the pollution and distaster control. We had literally no response from them. As soon as my wife mentioned to the NCPO that all her attempts failed, they finally took action.

Now, whenever she calls the firestation or police station, they have no choice but to react and respond to the calls.

We called every single day for 3 months. I told her that she should be persistent and eventually things will change. Now they opened up a full investigation into the government officials and the management of municipal services.

If you wish to complain, make sure you have your facts together and keep in mind that you might have to be very persistent. We even called after midnight at some nights. Our daughter is 5 months old and this smoke negatively affected her health. We didn't even for a second consider the dangers of standing up against the government here. Now we can see the observation planes making observations in our area.

When you ask someone to contact the NCPO about any illegal corruption, which isn't going to waste their time and you are in fact a good person who is keeping in mind the health of all people in the entire vicinity and not just your own, then you will accomplish great things and your concerns will bear fruit.

In Thailand, all you need is a bit of persistence, but trying to motivate a Thai local to contact the NCPO, can be difficult, because they have to give their full personal information, including identity number and current address. We have been reporting a lot of concerns since last year. We have seen very attractive progress. I can confirm that Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha's roadmap is working effectively. The NCPO was built to keep the peace. The ask people nicely to chnage their ways and do in fact follow up on all complaints. They are the communication headquarters for times where other authorities just don't give a crap.

I had some concerns about costly immigration policies and legal concerns about living in Thailand,but where will I find the man power to help me ask them to reform the costly and truly complicated immigration policies? I would have to ask every foreigner living here to ask their wives to voice concern about the immi policies. So I decided to let it be instead.

Wouldn't a 5 year Non-immigrant O visa without any funds in the bank be great for us family men? Iran and Russia is doing it, why not Thailand? Discrimination between rich, middle-class and poor isn't making the world a better place.

All I wanna do is dream, dream, dream....

NCPO call centre from any network, only Thai, 1111.

NCPO government webpage: http://www.1111.go.th

Please be polite with all complaints and keep calm, even in the background while calling. Do not call about MINOR issues, only issues of corruption, such as corruption of natural habitat. Do not attempt to defame anyone,unless you have actual proof, such as video or photographic footage, voice samples or recordings and witnesses to help support claims.

[metisdead]

Inflammatory posts and replies have been removed.

[MESmith]

^^ Great choice of adjective

[Chicog]

Can you reach it with a hosepipe?

[watgate]

chicog I LIKE your style. I would love to hose down the burning fire. That would show the inconsiderate homeowner that what he is doing is not good. Unfortunately there is no hose that I can see at this apt complex.

[northernjohn]

Usually they wait for the seasonal haze to kick in before opening a phone number to report the insignificant (relatively speaking) and largely unrelated local residential burning. (Which of course goes on year round as you have noticed, any time that is not too wet)

No matter, the authorities will think they're the same and think they're doing something, and you get to teach that dude who burns a lesson, so everyone (thinks they) win.

Great time to take action the coming weeks. Ask k.Pim at CityLife? Likely any older numbers to call you find in the internet will be fruitless.. You can also try at your sub district office, or the provincial pollution control office.

(Cycisism aside, I do think it's worth pursuing. I would too if someone was burning near my house)

I am not a big fan of City Life. I read the article and there was not much in it that we don't already know.

As the OP said

"This months Citylife magazine had a front page article on burning and they said the authorities do care about this burning"

Notice no phone number. I say if they care why no phone number? Or is it just sloppy reporting.?

[TheAppletons]

"It is no wonder no Thai folks will complain but I am tired of breathing this smoke and foul air."

One suspects that you could simply close your window to avoid breathing the smoke and foul air.

[slerickson]

Right about Thais. My gf hates the smoke and burning. We are driving to the market and there's big smoke not far away. I say call the police and report it. She basically says it's up to them If they want to burn and not her business. Guess it's why Thailand is rated highly among libertarians.

[chiang mai]

If you've got burning outside your condo in Muang you've been unlucky, we live in Mae Rim and we, like many of our neighbors, burn leaves in the garden about once a week. It's the time of year when trees shed their leaves and getting rid of them is a problem, the garbage people wont take them away even if bagged, there's no waste disposal site we can take them to, we haven't got the facilities to create a large compost heap, anyway, the sheer volume of leaves would likely prohibit that (we do have a small one for use on our garden but the volume is an issue). It takes about twenty minutes to incinerate several bags of leaves, if we dry them thoroughly before hand there is minimal smoke, if anyone has a better solution I'll listen.

Right, flame away.

[watgate]

Normally closing the windows and doors would do the trick but in this apt complex the windows are the kind that you close by turning a handle and so therefore,even after closing the window you still have an opening in the individual panes of glass and at the bottom of the windows which lets in the smoke.The doors also are not airtight so smoke comes in there and from the doors on each level since they are generally open all the time. This neighbor doesn't take the time to dry the leaves beforehand and so they are still damp and moist which creates a lot of smoke which can last for 2-3 hours. I guess I will have to resort to wearing a 3m N95 mask when the neighbor burns.

[Bill97]

If you've got burning outside your condo in Muang you've been unlucky, we live in Mae Rim and we, like many of our neighbors, burn leaves in the garden about once a week. It's the time of year when trees shed their leaves and getting rid of them is a problem, the garbage people wont take them away even if bagged, there's no waste disposal site we can take them to, we haven't got the facilities to create a large compost heap, anyway, the sheer volume of leaves would likely prohibit that (we do have a small one for use on our garden but the volume is an issue). It takes about twenty minutes to incinerate several bags of leaves, if we dry them thoroughly before hand there is minimal smoke, if anyone has a better solution I'll listen.

Right, flame away.

It is just too hard to do it right so <deleted!> it. Love it!

Don't have space or don't want to use the space for compost?

Community compost?

Find a farmer or nursery that can use the leaves ?

Properly done compost volume diminishes very quickly in this climate.

........

Sloth is no excuse for bad behavior.

[chiang mai]

If you've got burning outside your condo in Muang you've been unlucky, we live in Mae Rim and we, like many of our neighbors, burn leaves in the garden about once a week. It's the time of year when trees shed their leaves and getting rid of them is a problem, the garbage people wont take them away even if bagged, there's no waste disposal site we can take them to, we haven't got the facilities to create a large compost heap, anyway, the sheer volume of leaves would likely prohibit that (we do have a small one for use on our garden but the volume is an issue). It takes about twenty minutes to incinerate several bags of leaves, if we dry them thoroughly before hand there is minimal smoke, if anyone has a better solution I'll listen.

Right, flame away.

It is just too hard to do it right so <deleted!> it. Love it!

Don't have space or don't want to use the space for compost?

Community compost?

Find a farmer or nursery that can use the leaves ?

Properly done compost volume diminishes very quickly in this climate.

........

Sloth is no excuse for bad behavior.

It is not about sloth it's about volume and space, I did write, "the volume is an issue". I live in an area that is very heavily wooded, my garden alone has over thirty mature trees and everywhere around me is similar. Again as I wrote previously, we have a small compost heap that satisfies our needs but there really is no single place within the community that we can identify that could be used communally, unless of course we cut down some trees or bulldoze a part of our house! The local landowner is a retired very senior police man and he has offered up an small area of land that is known as the burning pit, residents can dump their garden waste in the pit and his staff will burn it once week or so, that's the closest you can get to community action here.

But I loved your idea of contacting a farmer or nursery to use the leaves, that just shows how out of touch you really are, I mean, who do you think the majority of the burners are for gods sake!

[evenstevens]

If you've got burning outside your condo in Muang you've been unlucky, we live in Mae Rim and we, like many of our neighbors, burn leaves in the garden about once a week. It's the time of year when trees shed their leaves and getting rid of them is a problem, the garbage people wont take them away even if bagged, there's no waste disposal site we can take them to, we haven't got the facilities to create a large compost heap, anyway, the sheer volume of leaves would likely prohibit that (we do have a small one for use on our garden but the volume is an issue). It takes about twenty minutes to incinerate several bags of leaves, if we dry them thoroughly before hand there is minimal smoke, if anyone has a better solution I'll listen.

Right, flame away.

It is just too hard to do it right so <deleted!> it. Love it!

Don't have space or don't want to use the space for compost?

Community compost?

Find a farmer or nursery that can use the leaves ?

Properly done compost volume diminishes very quickly in this climate.

........

Sloth is no excuse for bad behavior.

It is not about sloth it's about volume and space, I did write, "the volume is an issue". I live in an area that is very heavily wooded, my garden alone has over thirty mature trees and everywhere around me is similar. Again as I wrote previously, we have a small compost heap that satisfies our needs but there really is no single place within the community that we can identify that could be used communally, unless of course we cut down some trees or bulldoze a part of our house! The local landowner is a retired very senior police man and he has offered up an small area of land that is known as the burning pit, residents can dump their garden waste in the pit and his staff will burn it once week or so, that's the closest you can get to community action here.

But I loved your idea of contacting a farmer or nursery to use the leaves, that just shows how out of touch you really are, I mean, who do you think the majority of the burners are for gods sake!

bang on my beautiful maerimite

out in beverly hills maerim, the exact same scenario as yours

my old sheilia takes up the slack each year, with help of a paid worker,we can dump some at a nearby tip which is hampered by only opening one day a week, ant its anyones guess what day that is

the rest is burnt but as u said only after a complete drying , a indian would have a problem sending a smoke signal using this process

farmer/nursery bit, laugh of a day but thats par for the course from that contribitor

a dapsie dilly morning to all

[Trujillo]

Isn't there a time window where burning is legal?

[Bill97]

Having lived in rural areas for years I have seen farmers and nurserymen who are happy to receive leaves for compost and even go rake other people's property to get them.

[Bill97]

I guess I have been lucky to live in areas with a lot of people who care and not with maak ngai knowitalls. There are villages that are not trashy and where they do not burn Feb-April.

[Tywais]

Isn't there a time window where burning is legal?

1 – 10 January 2016: 9.00 am – 3.00 pm: Doi Tao, Mae Taeng, Mae Wang, Doi Saket, Hod

5 – 15 January 2016: 9.00 am – 3.00 pm: San Pa Tong, Chom Thong, Sameng, Wiang Haeng

11 – 20 January 2016: 9.00 am – 3.00 pm: Mae Jam, Mae On, Phrao, Fang

16 – 23 January 2016: 9.00 am – 3.00 pm: Om Koi, Chia Prakarn, Kanlayaniwattana

26 January – 5 February 2016: 9.00 am – 3.00 pm: Doi Lo, San Sai, Muang Chiang Mai, Chiang Dao

6 – 16 February 2016: 9.00 am – 3.00 pm: Hang Dong, Saraphi, Sankampaeng, Mae Rim, Mae Ai

http://www.chiangmaicitylife.com/news/new-burning-schedue-ordered-in-an-attempt-to-tackle-smoke-issue/

So, the last legal date to burn is February 16.

[chiang mai]

Damn, I'm in a legal period and I don't have anything to burn, isn't that just typical!

[northernjohn]

Having lived in rural areas for years I have seen farmers and nurserymen who are happy to receive leaves for compost and even go rake other people's property to get them.

A friend of mine lived way out in the country past Mai Jo. There was the biggest nursery I had ever seen out there. I am sure they would welcome compost there.

[chiang mai]

Having lived in rural areas for years I have seen farmers and nurserymen who are happy to receive leaves for compost and even go rake other people's property to get them.

A friend of mine lived way out in the country past Mai Jo. There was the biggest nursery I had ever seen out there. I am sure they would welcome compost there.

I could be wrong but I think you guys are living in la la land with this idea of farmers around here wanting leaves for compost, if that were the case you'd think I might have seen just once, people around the area where I live collecting them. Or maybe one of my neighbors would have said, let's not use the burning pit, let's give the leaves to ......! But no, not once. And do you not think that if farmers and nurseries really wanted those leaves etc that news would have made the press somewhere so that everyone would know and the pollution situation improved? As things stand the only people who seem to know about this is bill! Honestly, it's just so far fetched.

Edited February 10, 2016 by chiang mai

[MESmith]

Having lived in rural areas for years I have seen farmers and nurserymen who are happy to receive leaves for compost and even go rake other people's property to get them.

A friend of mine lived way out in the country past Mai Jo. There was the biggest nursery I had ever seen out there. I am sure they would welcome compost there.

I could be wrong but I think you guys are living in la la land with this idea of farmers around here wanting leaves for compost, if that were the case you'd think I might have seen just once, people around the area where I live collecting them. Or maybe one of my neighbors would have said, let's not use the burning pit, let's give the leaves to ......! But no, not once. Honestly, it's just so far fetched.

They'd probably tell you, you've got the "wrong kind of leaves" ....