News

Bangkok Post 28 June 2017 | Apinya Wipatayotin

Owner of industrial waste site unknown

Rayong: The Rayong industrial officer has filed a complaint with the police, asking that it investigate a deserted industrial waste site close to Dok Krai Reservoir in Pluak Daeng district.  It is suspected that 200,000 tonnes of toxic waste which went missing last year might be buried there.

VOA 22 June 2017 | Ron Corben

BANGKOK —  A booming plastics and packaging industry in Asia – including China – is being driven by rising incomes and consumption, with analysts saying a growing middle class will add to the rise in plastics demand across the region. But it comes along with a rising environmental alarm over plastic pollution in rivers and oceans.

Online plastics industry websites paint a picture of growth and trade and investment worth billions of dollars to Asian economies.

EARTH 22 June 2017

On 22 June 2017, the Governments of Thailand deposited its instrument of ratification, thereby becoming the 66th future Parties to the Minamata Convention.

The Minamata Convention on Mercury, a global treaty aimed at scaling down mercury use and production developed by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), recently surpassed the 50-country threshold required for it to become legally binding for all of its parties.

VOA 15 June 2017 | Ron Corben

BANGKOK — Thailand’s industrial development faces fresh calls for greater local community participation in addressing the challenges of environmental pollution, especially as reports point to an escalation in the production of hazardous industrial pollution.

Vietnam Net 14 June 2017

People in Hanoi and throughout the Southeast Asian country of Vietnam are starting to wake up and realize the gravity of the country’s air pollution problem, Nguy Thi Khanh told an air quality panel this past May.

The Nation 06 June 2017 | Pratch Rujivanarom

THAILAND: POLLUTION PROBLEMS in Thailand are getting worse, the Ecological Alert and Recovery Thailand (EARTH) foundation has concluded, as there are no assurances that new industrialisation plans will not generate further pollution while existing problems have not been resolved.

On World Environmental Day yesterday, EARTH released a report on pollution in Thailand in 2015 and 2016, exposing serious problems at the Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate in Rayong, unresolved issues at gold mines in Phichit and Loei, and ongoing environmental conflicts related to waste management and coal-fired power plant projects.

The Nation 29 May 2017 | PRATCH RUJIVANAROM

Article 44 invoked to rush EIA process, but academics warn special rules will violate people’s rights in affected area.

ACADEMICS and experts have warned of worsening environmental problems, unrest among affected people and violations of the Constitution after the junta passed an order using the sweeping Article 44 of Interim Charter to shorten the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process for the new Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC).

VOA 26 May 2017 | Ron Corben

BANGKOK —  Thai environmental activists are calling for the military government to withdraw orders that currently place severe curbs on protests against industrial and development programs.

Since taking power in May 2014, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has looked to tough legislation, including articles in the interim charter able to override all other laws and regulations.

In 2016, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha applied the laws from Article 44 of the charter to revise environmental regulations and allow infrastructure development to cover a wide range of sectors.

Bangkok Post 06 May 2017 | Apinya Wipatayotin

Karen hill tribe representatives from Klity Creek in Thong Pha Phum district of Kanchanaburi filed a petition with the environment minister on Friday calling for faster action to clean up the creek, which is heavily contaminated with lead.

The Supreme Administrative Court ordered the clean-up work to begin four years ago but little has been achieved so far by the Pollution Control Department (PCD), they claimed.

The Nation 02 May 2017 | PRATCH RUJIVANAROM

An academic has warned that foreign investors will receive too many privileges under the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) Bill, which could lead to serious land problems in the Eastern region.

Decharut Sukkumnoed, the lecturer at Faculty of Economics Kasetsart University, said there were alarming issues regarding the EEC Bill that would exempt foreigners from many leasing conditions and give too many privileges to foreign investors that would not benefit the country.