The scene is almost deja vu: A group of Karen villagers dressed in traditional costume and their representative lawyers clad in solemn suits hold their hands high in victory. The location is the Supreme Court. Journalists rush to interview them and file reports that read: "Klity villagers win court battle". Again.
These poor Karen villagers, who experienced devastating health problems or lost loved ones from lead poisoning after years of consuming water from a creek contaminated by untreated waste discharges by Kanchanaburi-based mining company Lead Concentrates (Thailand), have twice won a historic lawsuit.
In January 2013, they won a case against the Pollution Control Department (PCD) for failing to clean up the creek. The Administrative Court made the department pay 3.9 million baht in compensation and ordered it to clean up the toxic sediment within three months.
Last week, the court ordered the company to pay 20.2 million baht in compensation to the villagers for contaminating the creek, the only water source for Klity Village.
Anchalee Kongrut writes about the environment in the Life section, Bangkok Post.
Their victories could be material to inspire a movie of the like of Erin Brockovich, a Hollywood and Oscar winning blockbuster based on true story of an historic environmental lawsuit in the United States.
But in reality, the villagers' lives have hardly changed -- certainly not for the better. Despite the court's order, the PCD has failed to clean up the creek. And for the latest victory, the villagers do not know when they will get compensation from the company since the owner, Kongsak Kleepbua, died several years ago. The company has declared bankruptcy and closed down. Villagers need to seek the money from Kongsak's widow or another member of the Kleepbua family.
"Villagers do not know when they will get the money," Surapong Kongchantuk, director of the Karen Studies and Development Centre, said in a phone interview. "They do not care much about the compensation. These folk, you know, are quite different. They only want to see the toxic sediment removed from the creek and medical treatment for lead poisoning. They only want to see the environment rehabilitated."
Mr Surapong is right. These poor villagers are unique. I visited this village 18 years ago to cover this issue. I have returned many times to keep up with developments. I feel at home there.
What I see is a pastoral village. Yet there is an eerie sense of lingering sadness in the air. I am attracted to this village because not often in such an unlikely place do you see beauty, tragedy and a sense of desperation alongside hope. These are flesh and blood humans, with excess lead in their bodies. They might have less opportunity and limited access to education, and little money, but they are rich in courage.
The lead-contaminated creek is haunting. When filmmaker Nontawat Numbenchapol shot a documentary on the Klity pollution case several years ago, he told me he found the creek beautiful in a strange way. In his work, By The River (or, Infectious River), he wanted the creek to look like an impressionist painting. The effort paid off. His film won the 2013 Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland.
In reality, the river has a deep emerald green and a gradual water contour that makes it equally beautiful and haunting at the same time. Now children swim and play in the creek while villagers catch fish.
For many of us, these scenes might seem like another, less developed world. Personally, I feel Klity Village is far away, yet close to us. It is true we might feel superior and luckier than those poor Karen villagers. Yet are we actually much better as we would believe?
I think we are as unfortunate as the Klity villagers given that we are afflicted with the same inefficient and dysfunctional authorities that leave us to fend for ourselves.
We are no different from these poor Karen villagers when our officials turn a blind eye to violators. And do not forget, water from Klity River runs into the Sri Nakarin dam and the Mae Klong River, major sources of our tap water.
Of course there are huge differences. I found the biggest one is that we don't know how polluted our environment is. The worse case for many of us is that even if we know, we are too tired to fight back. We are too tired to care.