MORE than 800,000 tonnes of garbage in Nakhon Khon Kaen municipality - accumulated over the past five decades at Ban Kham Bon in Muang district's Tambon Noen Thon - gives this city in the Northeast the dubious distinction of having the eighth biggest rubbish dump in the country.
Residents living around the 98-rai (16 hectare) dumpsite at Ban Kham Bon believe the amount of rubbish could exceed one million tonnes if waste buried beneath the ground is included.
They also lament they have been negatively affected by the foul smell from the site and polluted water leaking into rice fields and water sources, as well as by occasional fires sending off smoke.
The residents say they have protested and filed complaints about these issues many times over the years.
Despite the municipality's efforts to tackle the dumpsite's impacts on people, as well as handling the amount of garbage before the site reaches maximum capacity, the level of waste coming in is relentless - and increasing on a daily basis.
As Khon Kaen has expanded and its population grown over the years, so has the amount of trash.
Burying the garbage has only led to a faster rate of accumulation, while the mooted establishment of a biodiesel factory to turn plastic waste into energy is not deemed as value for money - because it cannot compete with petrol, the price of which has fallen.
Attempts to find more places to bury garbage have faced protests from villagers near other areas.
Mayor Theerasak Theethapha said this meant the city had to find new solutions with minimum environmental impacts.
The first solution of constructing a wastewater-treatment system, featuring a 20-rai pond with 129,000-cubic-metre capacity to gather polluted water, has lessened the problem of polluted water leaking into villagers' farmland, he said.
The next challenge, however, was to tackle the huge mountain of garbage, and the most suitable solution was seen as an electricity-generating plant powered by burning the municipality's solid waste, he said.
The idea was in line with government policy to support alternative-energy production and the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand's policy to buy electricity from retail power generators, he explained.