More hotels to join effort to tackle Koh Samui’s waste crisis

[webfact]

More hotels to join effort to tackle Koh Samui’s waste crisis

By Thai PBS

 

 

SAMUI: -- Six hotels on Koh Samui have set the example in getting rid of garbage, especially wet garbage, they generated without having to send them elsewhere for disposal and it is expected the number of hotels joining this effort will be increased to 17 by year-end.

 

Seventeen hotels are to sign a declaration of intent to dispose 100 percent of the wet garbage they generate in December this year, said Mr Sathirapong Surinwarangkoon, one of the hotel proprietors on Koh Samui, on Tuesday (July 4).

 

Representatives of the hotel business, civil society, Surat Thani provincial officials and Thai Public Broadcasting Service (Thai PBS) met at the Tourism and Sports Ministry in Bangkok for discussion on garbage problem on this popular tourist destination and how hotel business can help in alleviating the problem.

 

Full story: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/hotels-join-effort-tackle-koh-samuis-waste-crisis/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2017-07-05

[Samui Bodoh]

I strongly applaud the hotels for getting together and taking some action.

 

However, from the full story in Thai PBS

 

"Mr Sathirapong said that a committee comprising representatives from Koh Samui municipal and from Bangkok will inspect and assess the performance of hotels in their garbage management and disposal.

Meanwhile, Ramnet Jaikwang, the mayor of Koh Samui, said that although campaign had been launched by the people’s sector urging communities and schools to generate less garbage and to properly dispose of them, garbage continues to pile up steadily, particularly from tourism-related business.

He suggested a law or municipal ordinance be issued to charge garbage collection and disposal fees in accordance with the amount of garbage generated by each household or each business or industrial enterprise. "

 

This quote from above makes my blood boil!!!

 

A government committee to assess the performance? The reason that the garbage crisis is so bad is because the government hasn't been doing its job! Why hasn't the incinerator been fixed?

 

It is true that the garbage crisis stems from the large number of tourists, but to be blunt, so does the money to pay for salaries of the municipal government and the promised repairs to the incinerator!

 

A fee to cover the cost of garbage disposal based on the amount created does make some sense, but what happened to all the money collected over the last 7-8 years while the incinerator was broken?

 

It is wonderful that the hotels are getting together, but they should have a policy of excluding the Municipal government until it can demonstrate that they can actually help and not just talk!

 

Go hotels!

 

 

 

Edited July 5, 2017 by Samui Bodoh

[clockman]

Thailand, in a nut shell. Talk infinitum!

Edited July 5, 2017 by clockman