Taking to the floor of parliament for the first time in six months, Move Forward party-list MP Pita Limjaroenrat talked about the garbage problems in Phuket and Samut Prakan provinces, with a stern warning that Phuket could be renamed one day by tourists as “a haven full of garbage” if the problem cannot be resolved quickly and effectively.

The former Move Forward party leader said he spent quite some time during his hiatus from parliament studying the garbage problems in the two provinces and met with locals to listen to their views.

He said that the landfills in Phraekkasa Mai sub-district of Samut Prakan and the one in Phuket have the same problem. They cannot handle the sheer quantity of trash which arrives each day, leaving it to pile up and become a threat to health and a fire risk.

In Phuket, he said that about 800 tonnes of garbage is generated every day, but only 700 tonnes are incinerated, leaving 100 tonnes in the land fill. The resort island earns about 200 billion baht from tourism and tourism-related businesses each year, while the combined budget of over 10 local administrative organisations is only about 600 million baht.

To address the garbage problem, he proposed that the budget for garbage disposal be increased substantially and that the amount of garbage must be addressed at its source, which would mean less garbage being generated and more being recycled.

He also proposed decentralisation of authority, from the Interior Ministry and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, to the local administrative organisations so they can more effectively manage garbage disposal.