THAILAND

 
Published: Thursday 31 December 1998

Pesticide bags dumped in rice< (Credit: Greenplace) 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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