After the water drained and the Thai New Year’s revelers went home, all that was left behind from Songkran in Pattaya was a mountain of garbage. On April 20, a day after the city’s epic “wan lai” water-throwing finale, sanitation workers fanned out across the city hauling plastic bags, bottles and all sorts of rubbish away (Photo by Urasin Khantaraphan).
Soggy Songkran leaves Pattaya awash in sea of garbage
After the water drained and the Thai New Year’s revelers went home, all that was left behind from Songkran in Pattaya was a mountain of garbage.
On April 20, a day after the city’s epic “wan lai” water-throwing finale, sanitation workers fanned out across the city hauling plastic bags, bottles and all sorts of rubbish away. They couldn’t work fast enough to prevent the smell of the garbage rotting in the 40-degree Celsius sun from seeping into every soi and sai.
After the water drained and the Thai New Year’s revelers went home, all that was left behind from Songkran in Pattaya was a mountain of garbage. On April 20, a day after the city’s epic “wan lai” water-throwing finale, sanitation workers fanned out across the city hauling plastic bags, bottles and all sorts of rubbish away (Photo by Urasin Khantaraphan).
Flanking the garbage collectors were the scavengers, hoping to pick out recyclables before they were hauled to the dump. They were hardly neat, spilling the contents of trash cans on the street, making the cleanup even harder.
The overflow of rubbish after the massive Songkran celebrations included glass bottles, beer cans, plastic bottles, plastic bags, food waste and much more.
Rampin Boongerd said she tries to keep things neat while collecting bottles and cans. But she noted this year’s tidal wave of trash was massive and she was able to collect 10 bags of bottles in no time.
