Thailand’s Pollution Control Department (PCD) has prepared manpower and equipment, including drones, to be sent to provinces in which landfills and wastewater treatment facilities are flooded, to help resolve the pollution problem after the floods recede.

The department has identified nine landfill sites in Sing Buri, Lop Buri, Si Sa Ket, Surin and Ubon Ratchathani and seven wastewater treatment facilities in Nakhon Sawan, Chai Nat, Maha Sarakham and Ubon Ratchathani at risk of being flooded.

Pinsak Suraswadi, director-general of the PCD, said that the department has advised local administrative organisations in charge of garbage disposal to build floodwalls around each landfill site or reinforce existing floodwalls to prevent water from entering or leaking from the landfills.

He added that local organisations have also been told to find an alternative site for garbage disposal during the flooding.

In Chaiyo District of Ang Thong Province, water from the Noi River has breached the floodwall and flowed into a landfill site, as local officials try to plug the gap in the wall, to prevent the polluted water from flowing into nearby communities.

Pinsak said that there are three alternative sites within a 100-km radius, in Ayutthaya and Chai Nat provinces, which can be used to dispose of garbage from Ang Thong Province.