The Waste Management of the Local Administrative Organization in Khao Kho District, Phetchabun Province, Thailand

Abstract

In Thailand, the responsibility for waste management has been decentralized to the local administrative organizations. However, presently, it is still observed that most of the local administrative organizations fail to fulfill this duty due to the insufficiency of budget, and the limited area for managing waste. This study conducted the interviews with 410 sample households in 5 local administrative organizations. It was found that Khao Kho District currently and increasingly faced with waste problem as a consequence of both the expansion of the tourism and the growth of the community itself. In spite of this, 60% of the local administrative organizations within Khao Kho District possessed no process to manage the waste. Thus, the huge amount of accumulated waste has been left without properly handling. The limitation of these local administrative organizations was due to their mountainous landscape situated in the National Park area. And, according to the Thai law, this specific area was classified as a Conservative Forest (Zone C) and Watershed (Tier 1 & 2) implied that waste management could not be done without official permission. However, the households within this area were aware of the problem and collaborated with the local administrative organizations in applying 5R Principle to decrease the amount of waste from its source.