Villagers of the
Rayong's Pluak Daeng district in Thailand are demanding closure of two major
reservoirs, Nong Pla Lai and
Dok Krai. The demand was
made after the government
proposed to build an industrial estate upstream. The
villagers fear that toxic chemicals released by the industries will flow down the rivers and pose health hazards.
A small group of villagers
visited a number of government agencies in Bangkok
to protest against the planned construction of ThaiSingapore 21 (Ts2 1)
Industrial Estate.
The villagers submitted
letters of protest to the
Industrial Estate Authority of
Thailand (IEAT) and the Office
of Environmental Planning
and Policy (OEPP). TS21 proposes to house industrial
plants for auto-assembly,
electronic devices, chemicals
and food processing.
Last May, OEPP approved
TS21's environmental impact
assessment (EIA) Study even
though it has classified the
district as 'green' or an 'agriculture zone'. Somboon
Kokanutaporn, one of the
villagers, insisted that they
were not blindly rejecting the
technology.
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