Abstract:
This research is a survey study about solid waste management policy of subdistrict administrative organizations (SAOs) in Chiang Mai province. It is aimed to investigate the policy, situation, potential, levels of importance, and levels of waste management implementation. Questionnaires were used to collect data from local citizens. They were distributed to authorities in charge of public health in 113 SAOs. The number of questionnaires filled out and returned were 109 copies or 96.46 percent by 30 small, 75 medium, and 4 large SAOs. Percentage, average, standard deviation, and chi-square test were used. The research results indicated that the size of SAOs had some influence on how the policy and local regulations about community waste management were stipulated, but it did not have any relationship with the levels of importance and levels of waste management implementation with a significance level of 0.05, while the amount of population had a relationship with level of importance in waste management with a significance level of 0.05. Of all SAOs, 59.63 percent had stipulated the policy on waste management but only 30.28 percent had local regulations on waste management. The ratio of law enforcement by large, medium, and small SAOs were 100, 56.52, and 25 percent respectively. Most policy on waste management requires household waste sorting and prohibits the burning of waste in public spaces. Regarding implementation of SAO authorities to collect, transfer, and dispose of waste, of all sizes of SAO, 47.71 percent did not collect and 49.54 did not transfer the waste, while 74.31 percent thought that it was important and implemented either by themselves, by persons supervised by local government agent, or authorized person in the manner of service business, either by means of landfill, making compost, or incineration, in order to minimize accumulated waste, pollution, and claims about area limitation. Management technology and budget were still insufficient, relevant statutory policies were not seriously enforced by authorities, and waste problems had not been dealt with from the root cause. According to the research findings, executives of SAOs in Chiang Mai are advised to launch a strategy to handle with waste management in a more concrete manner. They should define it as a policy and declare to the council of the SAO, promote, assign duties, and require service providers to file an application for certification to collect, transfer, and dispose of. In addition, they should develop a standard information system for waste management that can link to the database of the province. Furthermore, it is advisable to design the channel to provide legal consultation and support to relevant public health agents in order to achieve the effectiveness in waste management