Administrative actors in Thai waste management

Table 2.3:

Administrative Actor of Thai Waste Management

Name Affiliation Duties Note

Policy decision

Operator Audit Support

Provincial administrative organization (PAO), Municipality, Tambon administrative organization (TAO)

Local governments

Local Main Control

private company

-

Pollution Control Department (PCD)

Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment

Set the standard, and Make the plan

Evaluate waste collection and disposal (volume, sites)

Knowledge 1. Waste management master plan;

2. Environmental health strategic plan

Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP)

Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment

Set the plan for

environmental issues in general

- - Low-profit

loan, and knowledge

1.Environmental fund

2. Environmental quality

management plan

Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ)

Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment

- - contamination

of surrounded natural resource

Knowledge Advertise

Department of Health

Ministry of Public Health (MOPH)

Make a plan with the Pollution Control Department

Investigate toxic waste treatment sites, and set standard

Knowledge Environmental Health strategic plan

Department of Local

Administration (DLA)

Ministry of Interior

Operator, allocate duties, and order the local government

Decide big project, sites

Concern in policy implementatio n, corruption

Help local governmen t in planning

Main actor in new waste

management master plan National and

Provincial Waste management committee

Ministry of Interior

Approve outsourcing, and any kinds private business in WMS management

New organization from the 2017 Cleanliness and Tidiness of the Country Act

important organizations are from Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and Ministry of Interior. Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment always gets involved with every government plan related to waste management. Besides, there are three organizations from Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment that get involved with waste management. This reflects the Thai perspective, which sees the waste problem as an environmental problem. However, by the 2017 Cleanliness and Tidiness of the Country Act and new waste management master plan, Department of Local Administration (DLA) became another main actor. It took an important role to control local waste management by approval authorities. The localizing process of waste management can be seen by assigning DLA, which regulates local governments, as the main actor, instead of other departments from Ministry of Interior. These two characteristics—a part of an environmental topic and a local activity—are also reflected in most regulations and some government campaigns discussed in the previous section. In this part, the duties in waste management are separated into four types—policy decision, operation, support, and audition.

Policymaker

As discussed, because Thai society sees waste issue as an environmental issue, most of the policies of such nature are from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. Before Thailand had specific plan for waste management, ONEP was an organization that produced a plan related to waste issues—The Environmental Quality Management Plan in 1999, 2002, 2007and 2012. However, this plan did not focus much on waste management or waste treatment technically or politically (Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning, n.d.). Pollution Control Department (PCD) has been more involved in this issue recently, compared to ONEP, by cooperation with Department of Health to make The Environmental Health Strategic Plan in 2008 and 2012, which partly discusses the standard of waste management and disposal sites ( Bureau of

Environmental Health, 2012). The most important plan from PCD is the waste management master plan (2016-2020) because it attempts to produce a new specific law for waste management. This plan also states that PCD will be a policymaker for Thai waste management (Pollution Control Department, 2016).

However, because local governments—who are the real operators of waste management—

are under the DLA, the policies that are made other ministries had some problems of implementation. Therefore, The Environmental Health Strategic Plan and The Environmental Quality Management Plan have not been successful in case of waste management Bureau of Environmental Health, 2012; Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning, n.d.). The interview from the chief of waste management section of a Phitsanulok Municipality also confirms this problem. He said that PCD did not do anything for their landfill as well as created some problems, but the Department of Local Administration helped them a lot (2016, interviewed). This led to the cooperation between PCD and DLA for making the waste management master plan (2016–2020), which is the first Thai waste management plan. The plan also mentions DLA as a primary operator or host of Thailand’s waste management reconstruction.

This plan allows DLA become one of the main policymakers of Thai waste management.

Local governments can also be counted as policymakers because they can design waste management in their area. However, every local law has to be approved by regional governments before it will be activated in the area, and Cleanliness and Tidiness of the Country Act 2017, the provincial waste treatment committee is another actor in policy approval. Therefore, local government has limited power as a policymaker even at local level.

Operator

Operators in this part include not just garbage collectors, waste separators, and waste treatment operators but also any organizations who choose subcontractors as well as cooperation between organizations from different levels of administration or different areas. The main operator for waste management and treatment is the local governments. However, the local governments, in some big cities, outsource private companies to operate waste management, and the local governments become auditors.

Auditor

Auditor for domestic waste management is a complicated issue. Because Thailand did not have a specific law for domestic waste management and waste treatment sites in the past, several laws are used for controlling these activities, and any actors related with these laws can be the audits. For example, local governments can use administrative laws, or provincial governors can use Support and Protect Environment Quality Act to shut down complained disposal sites.

Moreover, because waste management is operated on general administrative laws as other local administrative activities, it can also be audited by organizations under the constitution. For example, Office of the Auditor General of Thailand might investigate in waste treatment projects whether they are corrupted or not. However, there are still some main auditors, namely, DLA, PCD, and the Department of Health. DLA is the main policy auditor. Its duties for this part are checking if local governments follow the waste management policy of the national government.

For the safety issues, DPC and Department of Health become the main actors for these activities.

The national waste management committee also has some audition power. However, it focusses on cooperation between private companies and local governments.

Supporter

The supporters can be separated into financial supporters and technical (knowledge) supporters. For the financial supporters, ONEP—which controls Thailand environmental fund—

and DLA are the main actors for supporting local waste management. However, DLA does not provide low-interest funds as ONEP. DLA controls subsidies of local projects each year. Therefore, they can decide which local waste management projects will get supporting money. This makes DLA become a crucial supporter in this field

The other support is knowledge support or technical support. Serval organizations operate this support. According to waste management master plan (2016–2020) Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is one of the most important factors for these activities. It educates both local governments and communities for waste management. Department of Health supports local governments about the health risk of improper waste treatment and also investigates toxic contamination as data for local agreement.