ABSTRACT
The Urban Environmental Management Project originated out of the problems that had arisen within a number of German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ)-funded urban projects around the world. The project in Thailand was initiated by a three-day workshop involving representatives of key national agencies, a selection of local authority representatives, NGOs working in the urban field and academics working on urban environmental management issues. Legally and according to tradition, local government in Thailand is, in fact, little more than an arm of central government and therefore basically uninterested in gaining greater local autonomy. The small municipality of Paak Phanang undertook to implement a demonstration project designed to create an appropriate and effective waste disposal system, including recycling and a properly constructed and managed sanitary landfill site. GTZ was invited to help build the experience, and hence the procedures, into the 8th National Social and Economic Development Plan.
