News
Local cry out as industrial fumes and foul affected their health
EARTH REPORT 30 October 2021
RAYONG, THAILAND – Citizens captured videos showing plumes of smoke coming out of IRPC petrochemical company’s gas flare stacks. They reported foul smell and loud, disturbing noises accompanying the smoke.
Local people affected by industrial pollution join legal workshop on health and environment
EARTH REPORT 30 October 2021
Ecological Alert and Recovery - Thailand (EARTH) and the Pro bono Lawyers Network of Thailand (PLNT) held the second workshop under the topic “Use and Engagement of Legal Knowledge for the Protection of Health and Environment”. Various citizen groups from Rayong and Ratchaburi attended the workshop. All of them victims of industrial pollution seeking environmental justice.
Minamata film reveals the long struggles of residents affected by industrial mercury spill to Thai public
EARTH REPORT 29 October 2021
Environmental NGO Ecological Alert and Recovery – Thailand (EARTH) and the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (Thai Health) organized a screening of the film “MINAMATA”.
The film tells the true story of Minamata, a town devasted by severe methylmercury poisoning between the 1930s-1970s. The pollution was a result of the release of wastewater from a chemical factory owned by Chisso Corporation. It led to a widespread occurrence of neurological symptoms that are now popularly known as “Minamata Disease”.
MINAMATA REVISITED
FRANCE24 22 October 2021
60 years before Fukushima, Japan was hit by an ecological disaster in the port city of Minamata. Forgotten by some, its memory is preserved by the illness that bears its name: Minamata disease, or severe mercury poisoning. Now, a new film about one of the worst cases of industrial poisoning in modern times is about to be screened in Minamata for the first time.
WORKSHOP: “Use and Engagement of Legal Knowledge for the Protection of Health and Environment”
The Ecological Alert and Recovery - Thailand (EARTH) and the Pro bono Lawyers Network of Thailand (PLNT) will hold the second of a series of workshops under the topic “Use and Engagement of Legal Knowledge for the Protection of Health and Environment”
Date: Saturday 30 October 2021
Time: 09:30 am -12:30 pm
Location: The Princess Beach Hotel, Kram subdistrict, Klaeng district, Rayong Province
Speakers:
• Mr. Chamnan Sirirak, environmental lawyer and legal experts
• Mr. Narit Sornsriwiwat, environmental lawyers
Local found water in a public waterway highly acidic
EARTH REPORT 19 October 2021
CHACHOENGSAO, THAILAND – The Phanom Conservatory Citizen Network informed the Ecological Alert and Recovery Thailand (EARTH) that after heavy rain on the 18 October, water level in the Nam Choan Basin 16 or “Grandma Jaew” Basin had overflowed the spillway. The citizen network conducted preliminary environmental monitoring and found pH level of water in spillway at 3.48, and the pH level of water 1 km away from spillway is 3.60.
Villager's VDO Shows Factory Operating Without Permit
EARTH REPORT 16 October 2021
Citizen of Klangdong subdistrict, Thailand, caught a factory conducting activities, while without permit. A video clip sent by a citizen of Klangdong subdistrict, Pak Chong district, Nakhon Ratchsima Province, Thailand, captured moments when a factory owned by Aek Uthai company conducted activities without permits. The clip showed mysterious smoke coming out of the factory compound. Municipal authority is investigating the matter.
Officials Urged to Reject Factory Pertmit
EARTH REPORT 14 October 2021
CHACHOENGSAO, THAILAND – Locals of Tha Than subdistrict crashed a municipal authority’s meeting and convinced government officials to deny permit to a recycling factory. Following a polluting recycling company’s request for new permit, locals of Tha Than under the name “Tha Than-Ban Song Group” demanded to attend a meeting where the matter was being discussed. The factory, established in 2018 by a company called Banana Disposal, has been causing water pollution and foul smell in the Tha Than subdistrict. Locals have demanded government agencies to take actions for years, but to no avail.
Time to ratify Basel ban on toxic waste
Bangkok Post 11 October 2021 | PENCHOM SAETANG & PUNYATHORN JEUNGSMARN
Thailand has been allowed to become a new global dumping ground and without public policy to counter it, the situation will only get worse. Ratifying the amendment will be a first big step to a more systematic approach to waste management and recycling in the country. Ratification of the amendment could lay the groundwork for the government to realise its oft-repeated dream of an effective circular economy that underpins a sustainable future.
What a waste
Bangkok Post 11 October 2021 | APIRADEE TREERUTKUARKUL
Southeast Asian countries have become new landfill sites for the management -- and mismanagement -- of waste from North America, Europe, Japan and South Korea ever since China imposed a total ban three years ago on trash imports from rich developed nations. As foreign investment in waste management expands in the region, local communities have voiced their mounting concerns over toxic contamination and its impact on their health and the environment.
