Put an end to dirty industry

Put an end to dirty industry

After 12 years of legal battles, the Mae Moh villagers' lawsuits against the country's energy giant ended with a painful lesson that puts a big question mark over the government's plans to push for more "dirty" development schemes.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Administrative Court ordered the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) to pay compensation to villagers in Lampang's Mae Moh district whose health and farmlands have been destroyed by toxic pollutants from its lignite power plant.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Administrative Court also ordered Egat to relocate villagers from the dangerously polluted area, rehabilitate old lignite pits, and move out of the Egat golf course so it can be reforested.

The victims' mixed reactions were understandable. It was decades after the lignite-rich land was excavated to feed the power plant in the late 1950s that the Mae Moh tragedy occurred. Then the villagers fell sick with various respiratory illnesses from sulphur dioxide emissions. Their farms were destroyed by toxic dust. Their cattle dropped dead. So did many villagers. But their plight was largely dismissed by authorities as unrelated to the coal-fired power plant which fought against the villagers' claims with its powerful public relations teams.

The villagers are now satisfied that the truth is out. The court has finally acknowledged their stories are true and that Egat must be responsible for their suffering. However, the 25-million-baht compensation for 131 victims far from covers their losses. Each villager will only receive between 20,000-240,000 baht.

But as Mae Moh community leader Maliwan Nakwiroj put it, what is most important is Mae Moh's message to the other communities under threat from coal-fired power plants and mines: "Stand up to protect yourselves."

Villagers in Phichit and Loei are now fighting powerful mining operations. Many communities in the South and Northeast are battling against oil drilling operations. They are also rallying against the Industry Ministry's push via new mining laws to allow mining in all areas, including private property and protected forests. The public is watching closely if the government will fail once again in its moral duty to protect citizens' rights in favour of industry.

Despite the ruling in their favour, the Mae Moh villagers' battle is far from over. They still have much work ahead to ensure that the ruling is implemented properly while trying to rebuild their lives.

If the Klity lead mining case is anything to go by, Mae Moh should be prepared for a new struggle. Two years after the court ruling in favour of the Klity forest dwellers, the clean-up of their lead-laden creek has not started yet. Sick villagers still have not received treatment for lead poisoning either.

The Mae Moh tragedy sends a clear message to the government: Raise environmental standards. Better still, stop the coal-fired power plants and other environmentally destructive schemes to protect the people and environment.

When the world is rocked by extreme weather resulting from climate change — and when renewable energy sources are aplenty — the use of coal should be out of the question. Death and ill-health cannot be compensated. The costly environmental clean-up often exceed economic benefits. And nature, once destroyed, cannot be healed.

The government and state agencies must not allow all kinds of dirty industry to cause irreparable health and environmental disasters to other communities as the lignite power plant has done at Mae Moh. 

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