Residents fighting for their rights to live in a clean environment and to participate in natural resource management have won two historic court cases in the past eight days.
On Jan 10, the Supreme Administrative Court ordered the Pollution Control Department (PCD) to pay nearly 4 million baht in compensation to 22 Karen villagers affected by lead contamination at Klity Creek, caused by a mining company in Kanchanaburi's Thong Pha Phum district.
The verdict awards each plaintiff 177,999.55 baht compensation. The court also ordered the PCD to speed its clean-up operation in the creek.
Then on Wednesday, the Supreme Administrative Court found the Royal Thai Police (RTP) guilty of using force to break up a gathering of villagers protesting against the Thai-Malaysian gas pipeline in 2002 in Songkhla province.
The court ordered the RTP to pay 100,000 baht compensation.
It's not easy to win an environmental case. Klity villagers spent nine years fighting the case and they had to travel many times from their remote village, deep in a Thong Pha Phum jungle, to the court. The Songkhla plaintiffs, meanwhile, spent 10 years battling their case.
Despite the difficulties in proving accusations against state agencies and the lengthy legal process involved, residents affected by state and private projects pin their hopes on the judicial system to bring about environmental justice.
The Environmental Litigation and Advocacy for the Wants, a group which provides legal assistance to villagers in environmental and human rights cases, said the group and the Lawyers Council of Thailand has handled 56 environment-related cases from 1998 until now.
Of this number, 42 cases are ongoing _18 criminal, 17 administrative and seven civil cases _ while final verdicts have been handed down in 14 cases.
The following are the most notable outstanding cases:
- Cobalt-60 case: Twelve people filed a civil case against Kamol Sukosol Electric Co Ltd for alleged negligence in storing radioactive materials. This allowed a cylinder of cobalt-60 _ a radioactive isotope that can cause cancer _ to be stolen from the company's property in 2000. Workers at a scrapyard later broke it open, causing a leak which poisoned dozens of employees and nearby residents. Three of the victims died from radiation poisoning within a year of the incident. The court ordered the company to pay the plaintiffs 640,270 baht plus interest. The claimants asked for the compensation amount to be increased, and the court is considering their request.
- Thai-Malaysian gas pipeline case: Twenty villagers are fighting a case filed against them by the Songkhla prosecutor. The defendants were accused of illegal assembly during their protest against the Thai-Malaysian gas pipeline project in 2002. The lower and appeal courts ruled in favour of the villagers, saying they were exercising their rights under the law to demonstrate.
In another case, the gas pipeline opponents filed administrative suits against the Marine Department and the Office of Environmental Planning and Policy for illegally approving the project's environmental impact assessment report.
- Mae Moh case: A group of Lampang villagers petitioned the Administrative Court in 2003, seeking protection for a 13-million-year-old snail fossil site in Mae Moh district from mining activity by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand's (Egat). The court ruled in favour of the villagers. Egat appealed against the verdict.
In another case, people affected by air pollution from a Mae Moh coal-fired power plant sued the Industry Ministry and Egat for failing to solve the air pollution problem.
The Administrative Court in 2009 ordered the state agencies to relocate the villagers and create an air pollution buffer zone.
- Map Tha Phut case: Twenty-seven communities located around Map Ta Phut industrial estate in Rayong petitioned the court to order the National Environmental Board (NEB) to declare the area a pollution control zone.
The Stop Global Warming Association is another group working on environmental cases. Srisuwan Janya, the association president, said he had filed about 60 cases over the past few years.
These include an administrative charge against the government for malfeasance in water management that led to severe floods in 2011, with 1,500 plaintiffs demanding 3 billion baht in compensation; a case brought by Samut Prakan locals against the Airports of Thailand over Suvarnabhumi noise pollution; and a case by Map Ta Phut residents demanding 76 industrial plants at the industrial estate conduct environmental and health impact assessment reports.