Bangkok residents definitely hate the monsoon season. There's nothing to enjoy about the massive amount of rainwater that paralyses the city's traffic.
A few years ago Bangkok residents were able to distract themselves from the inevitable plight of flooding and gridlocked traffic as they picked on hilariously outrageous comments about the floods made by then governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra, who was notoriously evasive and who was forced to step down last October.
The jokes came to an abrupt halt when his successor, non-elected Bangkok governor Aswin Kwanmuang, chose to maintain a low profile, possibly to avoid a similar public backlash.
Sirinya Wattanasukchai is an assistant news editor, the Bangkok Post.
But that doesn't mean the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) can escape its responsibilities and simply blame the tonnes of garbage that litter and clog the city's waterways and drainage systems for causing the flooded streets.
There is little point in talking about Bangkok's poor urban planning (or lack thereof). But it is widely known that much of the infrastructure and buildings have been built in locations that have served as either waterways or water-retention basins.
Since City Hall will never link poor urban planning with the annual flooding, let's talk about the waste-disposal issue.
Last year, MR Sukhumbhand took journalists around the city to show them how clogged the water-pumping stations were and how large the items being disposed of there were -- as if to shift the blame back onto the people of Bangkok. He showed the reporters mattresses and sofas that had been irresponsibly dumped into waterways, blocking the flow of water.
These piles of waste made it impossible for the water to be properly drained into giant tunnels, thus jeopardising a multi-billion-baht project organised by the BMA that none other than MR Sukhumbhand had proudly presented to the press earlier.
The same tactic is being repeated this flood season as garbage can again be seen piling up in waterways, floating on flooded roads and clogging gutters.
City Hall's public relations department even posted a few photos on its Facebook page showing drainage facilities blocked by solid grease -- waste dumped by street food vendors.
The photos were designed to show how residents of the "City of Angels" have been remiss (if not ignorant) for not realising that these small pieces of waste can quickly grow into mountains of garbage triggering floods in the city streets.
Unfortunately, the same photos also showed how the authorities have failed to do their job by not throwing enough manpower at it -- they used the term "understaffed situation". But no policy has been forthcoming to solve the root cause of the problem.
Despite spending years blaming poor waste-disposal habits for flooding, City Hall has never imposed strict measures or run campaigns to curb littering aside from asking people not to litter.
According to City Hall, almost 70,000 tonnes of waste were found in the city's waterways last year. Another 6,908 tonnes turned up in front of pumping stations, where the water flow often slows down dramatically.
But 60,000 tonnes of waste have already been scooped from the waterways this year, with another 891 tonnes clogging up areas at pumping stations.
Given this obvious hike, the BMA is in dire need of a campaign to educate people on how to keep the city clean.
Pol Gen Aswin shone a beacon of hope when he suggested a community watch programme, urging people to monitor public littering on the agency's behalf given its manpower shortage.
As an incentive, anyone who tips the BMA off with proof of littering would stand to receive a reward equivalent to 50% of the fine meted out.
According to the Cleanliness and Tidiness Act 1992, littering in public places is a violation of Section 31 while littering in waterways is outlawed by Section 33. Violators face respective fines of 2,000 baht and 10,000 baht.
In my experience, the authorities become very generous when it comes to sanitation and hygiene. Even though I have contacted my district office for several years about this issue, owners of small food shops still pour leftovers and grease into the gutters. Clothes shops still let their dyes wash into canals. The problems remain, often undiluted.
But if the reward scheme is implemented and the authorities take it seriously, I'm sure the BMA will make billions of baht from the tonnes of waste being dumped into public spaces.