Mining farm stares at another defeat
By Piyarach Chongcharoen
Environmental activists in Kanchanaburi said it was time the authorities used the Klity lead contamination case as a lesson to strictly control and regulate lead mining in the province. Following the Appeal Court's ruling on Thursday that the cash compensation being offered to eight residents of Lower Klity village who had suffered from lead poisoning be raised to 29.55 million baht, Pinan Chotirotseranee, chairwoman of the Kanchanaburi Conservation Group, said the Klity disaster has shown people how badly mining operations can impact on the environment and humans.
In the past, officials have always tried to protect the interests of miners and failed to compel them to comply with environmental regulations.
Mrs Pinan said authorities recently allowed another lead concentration firm, Kanchanaburi Exploration and Mining Co (Kemco), to continue its operations close to the Lead Concentrate Co's mine, which was ordered closed after the discovery of the Klity creek contamination.
Kemco has been contracted to extract over 60,000 tonnes of lead in one and a half years' time, or by April 3, 2009, said Mrs Pinan.
Allowing Kemco to continue with lead extraction in the area would only lead to the spillage of more lead into Klity creek, inevitably affecting people living downstream, she said.
For this reason, she called on concerned agencies not to extend Kemco's licence. If the mining activities are stopped, the forest around the mine would also recover from the contamination.
Right now, apart from the 14,989 tonnes of lead sediment in Klity creek, a forest area covering almost a hundred rai behind Kemco is also covered with lead sediment.
Klity residents have described the area as a ''lead sea''.
Surachai Trongngam, a lawyer from the Environmental Law for the Wants (EnLaw), noted that the Kanchanaburi Appeal Court's verdict marked a major development in the consideration of environmental cases by Thai courts.
The court based its ruling on financial damage, opportunity loss, and the health of pollution victims.
The court raised the compensation of each of the eight residents to between three and 3.8 million baht.
Surapong Kongchantuk, director of the Karen Studies and Development Centre, said after the ruling that Lead Concentrates (Thailand) Co will have to toughen its defence in court in another case involving 151 other affected residents who are demanding over one billion baht in compensation from the company, if it hopes to win the case.
Mr Surapong said taking legal action against violators of environmental laws would help improve environmental conditions in the country, as it would set a precedent for other investors.
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