From the policy from the government regarding the promotion of alternative energy, private companies contacted the municipality to use the 155 Rai empty land to develop a solar farm which can produce
5 Mw of energy per day to sell to the electricity authority. The municipality will receive 10% of the sales per month as well as being able to use some of the energy harnessed from these solar panels in the government buildings, schools, temples and villages. The contract will be for 25 years and at the 26th year, the solar farm will belong to the municipality.
The municipality has to collect 5 tons of waste per day which averages to 0.625 kg of waste per person per day. The municipality uses 1.8 milllion Baht per year- roughly 50% of the department's funding- for waste collection. Land fills are also being incringed by the community and constructions of new roads with only space left for one year of waste. The municipality has to implement a project to reduce waste at the source towards a low carbon city to reduce the amount of waste going to the land fill by separating the organic waste and recyclables. 1) For the organic waste, the municipality invested in cement bins for roughly 50% of households as a place to dump food scraps for compost to use as fertilizer for the gardens. 2) The municipality is advocating for a recycle waste bank in 12 communities and invested in a plastic press machine and contacted a private company to come and buy the recyclables once a month. The result was the reduction of waste from 5 tons to 3.5 tons and the municipality saves $100 a month of $12,000 per year on waste management. In the future, the municipality plans to build another waste separation center.
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According to the crisis of the expropriation of waste disposal site to build R3A highway and the results of GHG Inventory Management which was shown that municipal waste management is the main source of GHG emissions at 96%, the municipality then initiated this action plan. The working team was appointed to operate waste minimization in local level. The team included representatives from 12 communities, 4 schools, 7 temples and worked together with municipal staffs who acted as coach for each community. Moreover, there were field trips to observe nearby communities who received Zero Waste award and study how they minimize waste effectively. The team then had a meeting to discuss on how they can manage waste in their communities. The meeting summary included the establishment of waste bank in each community - at least 1 bank/community. Moreover, cement tanks should be provided to store organic waste of households of 4 villages. In addition, waste segregation should be promoted in schools, and the making of compost from food waste of temples should be operated. Moreover, the municipality has cooperated with Green Line Energy Company to buy waste plastics from waste bank of every communities and schools to use as materials for producing biodiesel at the price of 2 baht/kg. Furthermore, the municipality has collaborated with Center of Excellent on Energy, Economic and Ecological Management (3E) of Chiang Mai University to develop plan on establishing Renewable Energy Power Plant from organic waste by the year 2019. The results of plan execution included the reducing amount of municipal waste to landfill was from 5 tons/day to be about 3-5 tons/day. Moreover, the local people could make a living by recycling and selling new and useful products from waste. Most importantly, the municipality has been certified for Voluntary Emission Reduction under the project Low Emission Support Scheme (LESS) collaborated with TGO. At present, the municipality can reduce the GHG emission from this action at 643.53 tonsCO2e.
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The municipality joined the "Low Carbon Municipality" project by the Municipal League which collects information on the municipality's carbon footprint in the year 2012.This led to the thought that anthropogenic actions is what causes carbon footprint which prompted the the inauguration of the low carbon project by implementing the following activities within the government campus: 1) Using paper to its full potential 2) Reducing fuel use 3)Reducing enery use 4) Establishing an education center about how to produce food that is safe and environmentally friendly. The project received support from many personnels from the municipality to set a goal and implementation of different activities to reduce carbon emission. If the project is a success, the project will be expanded to the communities in the municipality.
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Energy saving activities include: 1) Switching the light bulbs to LED in the government building, parking building and homes of employees which totals to 100 bulbs and 3 spotlights. The total carbon reduced will be 406 KgCO2. 2) Manufacture furnaces that uses biomass as fuel to reduce the amount of gas used in household for cooking. The furnace uses wood and corn stubble as fuel which also reduce the problem of corn fuel. The furnace allows for 15 kg of gas to be used for 2 months instead of 1 month. Currently, the biomass-burning furnace is being used on 150 households.
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Since the national government as plans to improve roads in preparation for the opening of ASEAN, there has been many instances of truancy into community forest and the cutting of many large trees in the town especially old trees which was used as a source of medicine and food by the community. When the municipality joined the "Low Carbon municipality" project in 2012, the municipality held a meeting regarding surveying all large trees and community forests in the community. The planning committee assigned the task of surveying the biodiversity of trees that can be used for food and medicine to a high school along with Payao University. The committee also converted some areas of the 1,050 rai community forest into an eco public park along with Big Tree. Currently, there are 809 big trees on record and plans to plant more herb trees for medicine productions. The area survey for this project is finished and presently surveying the biodiversity.
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The municipality is part of the "Low carbon municipality" project by the Municipal League Organization and was chosen o become the primary education center focused on achieving low carbon emission for Thailand's Northern region. The municipality expanded the idea to achieving low carbon emission to 4 stragies: city of tree, city of waste minimalization, city of energy efficiency, and city of sustainable consumption to other organizations such as 4 other municipalities, 3 schools, and the District's Center for Health Promotion and Healthcare. The expected result is at all 7 of these organizations will utilize the information to come up with at least one strategy to reduce carbon emission with collaborations to achieve the goal. This project received the support from the Greenhouse Gas Management Organization and the Municipal League Organization. The munipality also has a plan for all 12 communities in the municipality to begin activities that will reduce carbon emission as an example for other orgaizations in the network.
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In the year 2010, the municipality received a 500,000 m3 reservior from the Department of Water Resources for consumption and for agriculture in the community. In the past, it was discovered that there wasn't enough water in the reservior during drought season which led to a controversy and water war within the community. The municipality decided to resolve the problem by creating a committee composed of members from the community and those from the municipality to come up with a solution. They decided to build a check dam which refreshed the forests of Huay Kao Kum municipality as well as help store water for the community. A total of 88 check dams were built with support from the national government, private companies, community and municipality. There is a plan for the year 2016 to deepen the reservior dept in some spots to increase the efficiency for water storage by 200,000 m3 bringing the total capacity of the reservior to 700,000 m3 as well using the area around the reservior as a public park and a bicycle track. This will increase the green space and recreational area in the community. The reservior along with the 99 check dams will ensure water availability all year-round.
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Using chemicals in agriculture increased the capitall costs for farmers. The municipality sees the importance of expanding knowledge about organic farming for which they established an eduation center for chemical-free farming. The center utilizes the King's philosophy of living sufficient economy without the need for superfluous things. The purpose following the lifestyle philosophy is to reduce costs, increase income by managing a farm that is 8 rai big where 4 rai will be used to grow a variety of vegetables, 2 rai will be used for livestock and fisheries, and 2 rai will be the operations building and recreational field. The activities on the farm includes: 1)fertilizer production through microbial fermantation 2) compost from weed 3)raising livestock and chicken from vegetable found around the farm 4)a fishery using vegetable scraps from the farm 5)planting a variety of plants including perrenials, fruits, woody plants, and garden vegetables. The farm started operations in 2011 with 500 visitors annually coming to study the farm. Visitors come from Payao prinvince as well as those from outside Payao. Leaders from 12 villages came and 60% took back what they learned from Huay Kao Kum municipality to implement in their communities. An examplary community is Baan Toong which established their own learning center for environmentally- friendly food production.
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