Importance factors of local acceptance in Phuket municipal waste treatment site

4.2.1 Negative impact reduction of technology and cooperation with private company Before 2012, the negative impact from the waste treatment site was a clear reason behind local resistance. As the site had not been designed to use landfills as a major method for waste treatment from the beginning, it did not provide enough space, buffer zone, and facilities for the landfill method. Before 2012, the site needed to dump MSW (municipal solid waste) into landfills which are designed for dust from incineration because the old incinerator was broken and there was garbage overload. The Phuket municipality requested a budget from the central government for the new incinerator. However, the budget did not get approved by the central government.

Improper usage created negative health and economic impacts affecting the locals. For instance, some people reported that their noses kept getting soar because of the smell (Phuketwan, 2009), and the water contaminated by dioxins from heavy dust destroyed the aquaculture in the Klong Koh Phee canal (Vanapruk, 2009). Since 2000, the report from Greenpeace showed that there was heavy metal contamination of especially cadmium in the MSW residues of the Phuket incinerator (Labunska et al., 2000). Moreover, between 2009–2011 some reports mentioned the over-standard dioxin in the soil and the aquatic animals near the Phuket waste treatment site (e.g.

Worawongkraisri & Tongsopit, 2011; Jindrich Petrlik, & Bell, L. 2017.

After the second incinerator was constructed and started operating, the issue of pollution as well as local resistance was mitigated. The recent report shows that the situation is improving.

The level of dioxin around the site has returned to a safe level (Phuket Integrated Solid Waste Management Center, 2016). The interview of a villager from Saphan Hin community shows us that their lives were much better after the operation of the second incinerator.

“I prefer incinerator to landfills. Some people might say that incinerator create more toxic than landfills, but for me incinerator create less smell than landfills.

Bad smell affect us severely, and the school is not far from the site. Sometimes,

student cannot study because of bad smell”. (Participant Ph1, Saphan Hin community committee, March 14, 2018)

Therefore, it is plausible to conclude that the negative impact on the surrounding community was reduced by the incinerator, and this is an important reason why the locals stopped their movement against the site.

However, to operate the incinerator, budget and know-how are chief prerequisites. In case of the Phuket municipality, before 2012, there was a major issue regarding budget. Therefore, they could not look after the maintenance the first incinerator, and it caused extensive pollution. PJT Technology is an important actor which fulfills the requirements. The volume of daily waste is a significant factor for technology usage as well as cooperation with private companies. Incineration requires high yet stable volume of daily garbage to operate beneficially and efficiently. A high volume of daily garbage attracts private companies to run the incinerator. They can ensure that there is enough garbage volume to produce and sell electricity every day. The table below shows that each year, the volume of daily garbage sent to the waste treatment site keeps increasing. The maximum capacity of the incinerator is around 700 tons a day. Before 2016, the incinerator had to dig the old waste from the landfill to keep the machine operating at the maximum rate. However, after 2016, the second incinerator was required to treat daily waste which led to overcapacity. This situation led to the repair of the first incinerator to increase the capacity of the incineration system.

Table 4.4: Volume of daily garbage and operation fee from 2013-2016 Year

2013 2014 2015 2016

Volume of daily MSW to the site 580 618 663 767

Annual Volume of MSW to the site 211,678 225,650 242,174 280,044 Annual Operation fee (Thai Baht) 110,072,560 117,338,000 125,930,480 145,622,880

(Phuket statistic office, n.d.)

The centralized waste treatment system of Phuket does provide not only adequate volume of garbage but also provides sufficient operational fee for PJT Technology by gathering money from several administrative organizations. The operational fee which local governments need to pay for the waste treatment site and PJT Technology keeps increasing every year. Moreover, the site can earn money from both selling electricity and the service fee. Therefore, the income of the site is not dependent on only one source. Both these ways of income are beneficial enough for a private company to operate efficiently and to spare some money to increase local acceptance which will be discussed in the next topic. To conclude, the centralized system of waste treatment of Phuket attracts private companies to join the site. Adequate volume of garbage as a result of a large waste treatment system makes incinerators operate beneficially and efficiently. Technology, know-how, and investment from the private company allows the Phuket waste treatment site to reduce negative impacts on local people’s health and properties.

4.2.2 Local benefit from Private section and incinerator

Not only the Phuket municipal waste treatment site’s efforts to reduce negative impact but the benefit which local people obtain is also a factor influencing local acceptance. The site has various benefits for the locals. They can be grouped into 1) compensation, 2) community fund, 3) job, and 4) community support. For compensation, the Klong Koh Pee fishermen got a fee from Phuket municipality after their fish farms were destroyed because of the contaminated water from the site. According to the electricity regulation, every power plant needs to set aside community energy funds for local communities (Office of Energy Regulatory Commission, 2012). The Phuket municipal incinerator also has to establish this fund with the local communities and PJT Technology Co., Ltd. However, in case of the Phuket municipality, the committee still does not

have a solution for money usage, therefore, it is on hold now as a member of the community committee said below.

“We just set the committee for the community fund. There are some money in the fund already, but the committee is not established completely. I think we can use money for our community this year.” (Participant Ph2, Saphan Hin community committee, March 14, 2018)

Furthermore, many people from the Klong Koh Phee village work in the site as scavengers and general laborers. This waste treatment site has been providing them jobs since the beginning.

Klong Kho Pee community is the community of scavengers established a long time ago without land title. Therefore, this community can survive by economic gains from the waste treatment site.

Finally, increased local acceptance is also ensured by the waste treatment site. The Phuket municipality cannot support these two communities which are outside the Phuket municipal territory because of the local government rule (Municipality Act, 1905). Therefore, PJT Technology is the principal actor providing this benefit. The company provides various kinds of support to the community such as scholarship, donation for religious events, or health check-ups.

These benefits are hard to calculate because several of them such as borrowing speaker or facilities for community events are not economic benefits. The following interview shows us different kinds of community support which each participant thinks they received from the waste treatment site.

“The company provide some scholarships for our children. And when we need other helps we can tell them, Such as Nganboon [religion event]”. (Participant Ph2, Saphan Hin community committee, March 14, 2018)

“The committee will let us list what we want, or which children should get support from the waste treatment site. Our community got support for community activities or facilities such as community radio.” (Participant Ph3, Klong Koh Phee community committee, March 14, 2018)

“The site provides health checkup for people around the site, as well as, the mask.”

(Wichit district leader, March 14, 2018)

We can see that the community support can be economic or non-economic such as health check-ups. Moreover, some of the support comes from the locals’ request of via the joint committee between them and the waste treatment site.

To conclude, the site provide several kinds of benefit to the locals. A part of these benefits are the result of the centralized system. Substantial volume of garbage attracts private companies to create business facilities such as the incinerator and junk shops. Incorporation of the private sector provides locals jobs and community fund. Moreover, due to the local government’s law, the Phuket municipality cannot give incentives to locals near the site. The private company fill this gap by providing some economic and non-economic support for local communities.

4.2.3. Legitimacy for land usage

Legitimacy in land usage is a unique factor of Phuket compared to the other two cases. It does significantly link to the size of the waste treatment system. However, during the interview, it is a factor which the locals always mentioned. Therefore, it should be discussed briefly here. The locals consider the waste treatment site highly legitimate because it was settled before the communities. This legitimacy makes locals allow the site to be in this location even though it had negative impact for a long time before 2012. The Phuket municipal waste treatment site is set in a preserve forest before the extension of the city and not far from the old landfill which these days has become a public park (Saphan Hin Park). Due to these two reasons—arriving first and settling in the area preserved for waste treatment purposes—the site acquired high legitimacy for land usage. The following interview shows us the opinion of local participants regarding the issues of legitimacy.

“You have to understand that the site came before their communities. Saphan Hin community is a housing estate which people bough without notice how near they

live with the site, while Klong Koh Phee community set without land title near the site. They are scavengers.” (Kawin, Mu1 village leader, March 14, 2018)

“I understand that the site have to be here. We are island if the site is not here, it have to be somewhere else not far from here and other communities will go against it too. “(Participant Ph1, Saphan Hin community committee, March 14, 2018)

Although both communities consider the site’s land usage legitimate, each has a different opinion regarding negative impact effects. The population in the Saphan Hin community mostly works outside the area while the Klong Koh Phee people work in the waste treatment site. The Saphan Hin people think the site does not have legitimacy in creating any negative impact especially smell and contaminated water. The Klong Kohn Phee people think the smell is not significant but the contaminated water destroying their aquaculture is unacceptable.

In other words, the Phuket Municipal waste treatment site has not faced resistance against its settlement but against its negative impacts. However, there are other details regarding this resistance. While the Saphan Hin community is concerned about the smell, the Klong Koh Phee community is concerned about wastewater from the site. These differences are a result of difference in the career and location of the communities.