Flood Waste Smothers Hat Yai as Cleanup Team Races to Dec 10

The bustle of Hat Yai has lately been drowned out by bulldozers and the unmistakable stench of sodden rubbish. City officials have promised residents that by the King’s Birthday weekend, the streets will once again smell of street food instead of sewage. For thousands who are still stepping over broken furniture and animal carcasses, the pledge can’t be met soon enough.

A city still digging itself out

Hat Yai’s celebrated skyline of shophouse roofs now competes with mounds of water-logged sofas, splintered wardrobes, and mud-caked electronics. The deluge that barreled through Songkhla’s commercial heart last week left an estimated 11,000 tonnes of solid waste in its wake. Around the clock, 60 garbage lorries zig-zag across four municipal zones, while seven crews of nearly 100 collectors each work shifts long past sunset. Yet the pace feels glacial to locals who say the Southern economic hub is losing its lustre under a blanket of debris and foul odour.

Race against the calendar

Provincial agencies insist the clean-up will finish by 10 December, a date chosen to reassure merchants hoping for year-end tourism. Progress reports claim 8,001 tonnes have already been hauled to treatment sites, but critics point out that only 1,750 tonnes have left the Hat Yai urban core. Newly cleared roads are often choked again the next morning as households continue to drag out warped plywood, rusting refrigerators, and soggy mattresses. A directive from the Prime Minister’s office now pushes civil servants to remove every last scrap within a fortnight, warning that delays will erode public confidence ahead of the high-spending festive period.

Where the rubbish goes—and who pays

Songkhla owns four permanent disposal facilities able to absorb more than 25,000 tonnes collectively, but space alone is not the answer. To shorten transport distances, the province carved out up to ten rai of vacant land for interim stockpiles where refuse is sorted before shipment. Industry has stepped in as well: SCG Cement, armed with shredders and kilns, converts mixed waste into refuse-derived fuel (RDF) at a rate of 2,000 tonnes per day, turning what once clogged drains into kiln energy. The company shoulders haulage costs for part of the stream, easing pressure on local coffers already drained by flood-relief payouts.

Unequal clean-up divides neighbourhoods

In the labyrinth of Hat Yai’s minor sois, residents complain that municipal trucks favour downtown boulevards, shopping arcades, and hotel rows. Smaller alleyways remain barricaded by toppled wardrobes and brittle drywall, making it impossible for ambulances and delivery bikes to pass. Community leaders say the imbalance is deepening ingrained feelings that outer districts are an afterthought. Officials counter that narrow lanes require mini-dumpsters and manual loaders, slowing operations, but pledge to create extra roadside drop-off zones so families can shift displaced belongings without blocking traffic.

Silent threats: disease and mental strain

Overflowing waste is not just unsightly; it is fertile ground for mosquito larvae, rodents, and airborne spores. Public-health teams have distributed protective gloves, chlorine spray, and N95 masks while warning about leptospirosis, diarrhoea, skin rashes, and the psychological toll of living amid ruination. Mystifying odours wafting from piled debris intensify anxiety; doctors at the regional hospital note a rise in stress-related insomnia among flood victims. The Pollution Control Department has brewed 8,540 litres of bio-fermented solution to deodorise stagnant puddles and boost water quality in canals feeding the Songkhla Lake basin, where dissolved oxygen has plunged below safe benchmarks.

What comes next

When the last garbage truck rolls away, the city will still confront the harder question of prevention. Engineers argue Hat Yai needs bigger detention ponds and stricter zoning so that new housing estates do not sprout on natural floodplains. Civic groups are reviving the dormant Zero Waste neighbourhood scheme, hoping to turn household sorting into habit before the next monsoon strikes. And in a sign of shifting public mood, volunteers armed with brooms and sprays have begun weekend "clean and chat" gatherings, discussing climate resilience while scrubbing sidewalks. Their premise is simple: if streets can be restored by 10 December, they can also be protected long after the headlines fade, provided everyone—state, business, and citizen—keeps a hand on the broom rather than waiting for the next emergency to decide who should sweep.