COERR Mae Sot continued to provide and maintain technical support for the operation of community-based waste management in Mae La Camp in order to promote environmental sanitation and hygiene among refugee communities for their own benefit.

Waste management in Mae La includes garbage collection, sorting, reuse or recycle, burial or incineration.

Waste management covers collection, sorting, disposal and reusing of waste. Meetings are regularly held to bring cooperation and coordination among organizations, community leaders, waste management working group, school teachers and religious institutions, etc., concerned in waste management.

The environmentally-friendly households were visited and guided about waste minimizing through reducing, reusing and recycling procudure.

On February 18-19, COERR staff and Karen Environmental Group together with volunteers cleaned and cleared the waste management area and put all tools in place.

Later, staff and refugee volunteers cleared the water treatment pond by taking away Water Hyacinth which are floating and blocking waterway. These plants will be used for composting and distributed to farmers. Then the area around the pond were clear and clean.

Clean-up Day was set on March 13, in which refugees numbering 150 from Zone A, 200 from Zone B and 200 from Zone C contribute to the garbage collection in the stream throughout the Mae La camp. NGOs including COERR support truck for garbage collection, garbage bags, food and drinking water, etc.

Waste management is handled by the cooperation among many parties concerned: Government and private sectors, refugee community, Thai village, schools and religious institution, to minimize problems and impacts incurred as well as to initiate the potential of recycle waste bank project