Pattaya City Hall finally cleaned up an ad hoc garbage dump near Nong-Or Temple that neighbors had been complaining about for years, but wasn’t addressed until tourists posted photos on social media.
City Complaint Center director Somchai Polachorn and Nong-Or Community President Panom Lienpreecha led an Environment Department work crew to the temple April 26. They cleaned the area and used a backhoe to move all the garbage into one place so it could be collected and removed.
Somchai said the trash pileup – which has been going on for years – resulted from garbage pickers sorting through temple trash and pulling out recyclables while scattering other waste.
Others made matters worse by dumping their own garbage there and city hall never sent trash collectors to clean it up.
Despite bushels of complaints, nothing changed until unflattering photos and captions appeared on the internet. Afraid Pattaya was getting a bad name, city hall finally acted.
