ENVIRONMENT

Klity Creek villagers awarded Bt3.8m

Pongphon Sarnsamak

The Nation

PCD ordered to clean up lead-contaminated area

KANCHANABURI: -- After a 15-year legal battle, villagers living near Kanchanaburi’s lead-contaminated Klity Creek have finally scored a decisive victory over the state pollution-control agency in the country’s first environmental case to see a final court ruling.

The Supreme Administrative Court yesterday ordered the Pollution Control Department (PCD) to pay a combined Bt3.8 million in compensation to 22 villagers living around Klity Creek and to rehabilitate their local environment. The PCD is now required to draw up a rehabilitation plan for tainted water, soil and vegetables and monitor its implementation for a year until the lead levels drop to standard levels.

"We want our old life back," said Sompong Thongphachailai, one of the affected villagers. He lamented that due to the contamination, the locals could not safely use the water or eat aquatic animals from Klity Creek.

He said locals needed water for drinking, bathing, washing dishes and clothes, gardening, and farming. The polluted creek, therefore, was a major disruption to their lives, he said.

Sompong was among 22 villagers who petitioned the Central Administrative Court in 2004, complaining that their village's lifeline, Klity Creek, was heavily polluted. The pollution was blamed on Lead Concentrate Co, which had operated a lead mine nearby. Winning a concession in 1967, the company was forced to shut down in 1998.

The court yesterday ordered the PCD to pay Bt177,199 to each of the 22 complainants. The compensation was calculated based on the fact that the affected villagers were unable to obtain food from the creek between August 2004 and June 2012.

"The PCD must pay compensation because it was slow in preventing further damage from the lead contamination," the court said. The lead contamination was first reported in 1988.

Farmer Preecha Arunsrisuwan, 48, said he hoped the creek would become clean enough to support locals' lives again. "I am happy with the court's verdict," he said tearfully.

Yaseh Nasuansuwan, 61, said he wanted the PCD to remove tainted sediments from the creek soon.

PCD director-general Wichien Jungrungruang said his agency would accept and comply with the Supreme Court's final verdict, adding that he will ask the government to allocate funds to pay compensation for the affected villagers.

However, he insisted that the department had not neglected to restore the tainted creek. Moreover, the department next month planned to remove 3,000 tonnes of tainted soil that had previously been stored underground.

Meanwhile, environmental lawyer Surachai Trong-ngam, who represents the villagers, said the verdict provided a new norm for state agencies to follow in drawing up environmental-protection plans before it proceeded with its own construction plans or permitted private firms to operate businesses that might harm people's health or the environment.

-- The Nation 2013-01-11

Thai villagers win lead pollution court battle

BANGKOK, Jan 11, 2013 (AFP) - Ethnic minority villagers at the centre of a nine-year legal dispute over lead pollution from a mine in western Thailand won their fight for increased compensation on Thursday.

Thailand's Supreme Administrative Court ordered the government to pay 3.9 million baht ($128,000) shared between 22 plaintiffs from a Karen community living near the Klity Creek in Kanchanaburi province.

It said the government's Department of Pollution Control had failed to prepare a contingency plan in case of a leak, while efforts to tackle the problem only made it worse.

Both sides had appealed a lower court decision in 2008 to award a total of 783,226 baht in compensation to the plaintiffs for the contamination from a mine operated by Lead Concentrate Ltd. until its closure in 1998.

Village chief Yasae Nasuansuwan said his community -- home to 400 people -- had suffered from lead pollution since 1975.

"We have had health problems such as stomach ache while many women feel tense because they no longer use water from the creek for their daily activities," he told AFP after the ruling.

"About six to seven people died when high levels of lead were found in the creek, but I don't know if they all died from the lead because we didn't go to see a doctor," he said.

The court ordered the government regularly to test the contamination levels, but villagers expressed disappointment that it did not set a timetable to clean up the creek.

Activist Surapong Kongchantuk, director of the Karen Studies and Development Center, welcomed the ruling as "the beginning of standards in environmental cases" in the kingdom.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2013-01-11

Good news.

Hopefully this may be the start of Thailand actually doing something about the horrific pollution levels here.

What about the mine?

Don't they pay anything?

Good news.

They do deserve an award just for the name of the village, and a paddle.

Looking at the picture I had to wonder how the Village got it's name as there doesn't seem to be many Women there? . Great news they have been awarded compensation and as a previous Member said, hopefully it is the start of organisations being held responsible for their actions.

Sounds like an average win here, this money wont compensate for the residual costs the high environmental lead levels will have on their children.

A troll post and the replies to it have been removed