Koh Samui municipality to use canvas to cover garbage

[evadgib]

Regular exposure of updated drone footage might shame them into finding a proper solution, but only if picked up by the media in tourist sending countries...

[Basil B]

....jebus.....have ya all seen the land fill right outside the airport gate? Seriously.....sources tell me one can fly in and see the carnage one, two , three, four, five major distribution centers of commercial goods can do to a roughly 25KM by 25KM island....in a matter of less than ten years it's become now an item of concern to all who live there. They tell me this is the first year that it's now a Major concern cause it's not seeming to go away. How could it? Locals are a contributor as well as tourists. All contribute to the ever expanding pile of accumulated wealth debris. The island however beautiful some may still find it to be has been ravaged to a point where pep's are complaining about it. That's a shot across the bow no matter what one says cause years ago it seems not one person had a reason to mention anything. There will be no solution to this mess....it will continue till eventually the tourists will NOT come and the Samuites catch on to the fact that ....well....ha ha....that'll never happen....mai pen rai....

I saw it 15 months ago, I assume it is a lot worse now, when I saw it there was some people tatting and burning off wast plastics etc., from the metals with a small fire, I commented at the time that if this wast dump were to catch fire it will probably shutdown the Airport for days.

[Basil B]

Regular exposure of updated drone footage might shame them into finding a proper solution, but only if picked up by the media in tourist sending countries...

This will not shame those responsible in to action, other than a witch for those who put it on YouTube and banning the flying of drones.

[evadgib]

Regular exposure of updated drone footage might shame them into finding a proper solution, but only if picked up by the media in tourist sending countries...

This will not shame those responsible in to action, other than a witch for those who put it on YouTube and banning the flying of drones.

Can you offer any alternative?

Google earth?

Cat collar footage?

I of course realise nowt will happen until the groundwater is contaminated and poleaxes the community, but something is better than nothing.

[williamgeorgeallen]

Regular exposure of updated drone footage might shame them into finding a proper solution, but only if picked up by the media in tourist sending countries...

remember the young western guy who tried to expose the high prices of taxis on phuket by posting youtube videos of himself being overcharged? he ended up having to do a groveling session with the police infront of the media, probably after a bit of re education on the matter. anyone else want to risk deportation pointing out thailands problems to the world?

[sirineou]

Brilliant idea !! cover it with canvas then the problem will go away

Residents are complaining about the smell, so covering it will not solve the problem.

Out of sight out of mind, brilliant thinking.

I believe the article said "Faced with a mountain of accumulated garbage estimated at about 250,000 tonnes and a malfunctioned incinerator, Koh Samui municipality has come up with an idea to temporarily solve the problem "

the operatve word here being " temporarily" .

it is a stop gap solution until the incinerator is repaired.

In the eyes of some, Thais can do nothing right, it is more a reflection on them than it is on the Thais.

[B166ER]

....give me a break, "temporarily" means another five years of "temporarily" band-aiding the problem. Some of us are realists not apologist's and that is a reflection on not the people but the one's in charge of "temporarily" correcting this very long drawn out problem.

Eight years ago I used to jog through the incinerator landfill site. The concrete road at the top gave way to a dirt road that traversed through the pit and you came out 300 feet below to a stream and jungle. Now that pile is 300 feet of solid waste and growing ever higher and expanding now into the areas surrounding the site which are across the road and filling the once pristine jungle with our debris.

The tarp will surly end up causing more problems than solving them. Instead of talking about it I'd like to help rectify this problem but I ponder out loud if any contributions I'd tender would fall on death ears....

[robsamui]

Sigh.

The ruling classes deliberately under-educate their workers.
Then some of these uneducated workers rise to positions of power throughout the nation.

Then these powerfully un-educated people find themselves in a position to make Important Decisions and Solve Problems.

Thus, once again, an uneducated and un-informed decision is made. In this case . . .

ie . . .

1. Ignore the problem and wait for it to go away.

2. If it doesn't, then make loud proud noises about how it's now been fixed.

3. Cover it over with canvas so nobody can see it.

3a. If it can't be seen then nobody will know that it's there.

4. Problem now gone away.

Except for . . . . .

[Basil B]

Why not just cover it with earth, shove some pipes in it to tap off the gas, and make electricity with the gas.

With reference to the ground water contamination, are not most of these dumps at near sea level and does not the water used on the Island come from the hills? just avoid locally caught sea food.

[evadgib]

Regular exposure of updated drone footage might shame them into finding a proper solution, but only if picked up by the media in tourist sending countries...

remember the young western guy who tried to expose the high prices of taxis on phuket by posting youtube videos of himself being overcharged? he ended up having to do a groveling session with the police infront of the media, probably after a bit of re education on the matter. anyone else want to risk deportation pointing out thailands problems to the world?

It takes a complete numpty to fail to find a way of doing this without putting themselves in the above position. If this thread had the key words 'Koh Tao' in it's title there would have been a dozen or more prime examples yelling 'I'm Spartacus!' by 9am the morning after it first appeared

[waldroj]

Wow! Did you see that sucker!

Looks like we won't need the canvas any more. Not only have we fixed the garbage problem, when the crater finally cools down we'll have a new water reservoir as well!

[B166ER]

....55 55 55....bravo....the CGI does emphasize the need for Korea to test its nuke capability strike capacity. What better a target than a capitalist roaders entitlement pit. Much rejoicing among the starving belittled comrades of Asian socialism. 55 55 55....

[Beng]

If they got a special budget allocation to buy the cover, how about a special budget allocation to fix the incinerator?

Or, heaven forbid, upgrade it to something that will actually do the job.

True indeed.

[Beng]

Great news. After years and years of polluting soil and water, now they cover it under a layer of canvas.

Whoever came up with this, certainly deserves an inactive post.

[TheLobster]

Why don't they just do what most local people seem to do on Samui and just burn it? It would be appropriate when the wind was heading back to Indonesia after the month of smog we had to suffer from their land clearing fires.

[cockatoowho]

Where's Bill Gates when you need him?

[jaidam]

Does anybody know what highly concentrated methane gas can do? Rotting rubbish covered with black tarps will be generating both heat and methane. Will they set up vents and flares???

[HooHaa]

I suppose the only positive takeaway here is that they did not decide to use plastic, though I can't see how rubberized canvas is much better.

I really can not see the issue here, it's an easy fix if the money is not diverted into local pockets.

Step 1 - repair or replace "malfunctioned" incinerator - use money from electrical cable burying budget.

Step 2 - begin shipping trash to a facility on the mainland where it can be properly dealt with.

Step 3 - once issue is under control begin incinerating garbage as it is created.

Also, levy a business tax for large creators of waste - resorts etc