UDON THANI: Residents of Udon Thani municipality are crying "foul" over accumulating piles of rubbish left uncollected by the local authority.
They complain the rubbish they put out in front of their houses or at designated places in their communities has not been collected since early this month. This casts their communities in a bad light - and they have to live with the foul smells eminating from the heaps of garbage.
Municipal mayor Ittipol Triwatanasuwan admitted the problem began around the start of the month and gave them an assurance efforts are being made to deal with it.
He attributed the problem to a new procurement regulation which he said prevented the municipality temporarily hiring a firm to collect the rubbish after the contract with the previous firm expired.
His office was in the process of finding a new rubbish collector.
The mayor said the municipality had already received permission from the provincial authority to hire a new garbage collector on a four-year contract.
In the meantime, the municipality needed to handle the rubbish collection itself, Mr Ittipol said.
The municipality’s 14 dilapidated garbage trucks were undergoing the repairs needed to put them back into service, and 10 of them were ready to hit the road again. Crews also have to be hired.
They were already doing two to three rounds a day, but rubbish insome spots remained uncollected, Mr Ittipol said.
The number of garbage trucks and crews on the roads would increase next week, he promised, which should ease the problem.
People troubled by uncollected rubbish could contact the municipality at Hotline 1132 around the clock.
