Mysterious deaths of giant freshwater stingrays in the Mae Klong River. Lead contamination at Klity Creek in Kanchanaburi. The pollution of the Pong River in Khon Kaen.
There is one thing these three high-profile pollution cases which occurred at different times and in different places have in common: All were described as "accidents".
In the Khon Kaen case, a molasses tank at a sugar factory burst, leaking a huge volume of molasses -- a by-product of the sugar-making process -- into the Pong River, causing massive destruction of the fish population in 1992.
Ploenpote Atthakor is editorial pages editor, Bangkok Post.
In Kanchanaburi, the company Lead Concentrate claimed that untreated water from its lead processing plant in Thong Pha Phum district "spilled" into the creek after a wastewater pond broke one stormy night in April 1997. Some locals, all belonging to the Karen ethnic minority, died or became ill from the then "mysterious disease".
The most recent case concerning pollution in the Mae Klong River in Samut Songkhram, resulting in the deaths of many rays and other aquatic creatures, was caused by treated waste water which had been leaking from a sugar/ethanol firm. The treated water was supposed to be reused in farms and not discharged into the environment.
In a letter of apology to the community last month, the firm, situated upstream of the Mae Klong River, said there were holes in its wastewater tank.
As I followed reports of the stingray deaths while working on the Mae Klong pollution case early last week, the Klity Creek and Pong River cases which I reported on decades ago came to mind.
Claiming a tank/pond had "broken down" gives the impression the three incidents were unintentional and unpreventable. But were they really?
Should we believe these operators? My answer is "no".
Take the Klity Creek case for example. The claim that torrential rains caused the pond to fall apart was rubbish as evidence suggested the plant operator directly discharged untreated waste water through a pipe, allowing the toxic water to contaminate the creek for about two decades.
The contaminated sediment is still a problem today.
But we know such claims may just be clever tactics that allow the perpetrators to escape harsh penalties. Most of the time, they are simply fined and encouraged to "fix the problem", after which it is business as usual.
A conservationist campaigning for the protection of stingrays, an endangered species on the IUCN list, said it's upsetting no perpetrators had been thrown in jail for environmental crimes.
Yes, we are upset with these irresponsible operators. But we are no less disappointed with state officials handling these cases with such passive attitudes. That such incidents happen repeatedly indicates a breath-taking lack of efficiency.
Worse, some officials seem to be defending the industry at the expense of the environment and people's health.
In a phone interview earlier last week, a Ratchaburi-based industrial official tried to convince me the leak was an accident and the plant in question had always followed regulations.
He voiced suspicion, while results of a water sample tests were still pending, that a factory located quite a long way from where the carcasses of the rays were found was to blame. The results of the tests which came out this week prove he was wrong.
I could not help but wonder if the polluting of the Mae Klong would have gone on and on had the unlucky rays not floated to the river surface. In fact, there are a lot of questions about this case.
Why didn't the authorities, the industrial or environmental offices, have any idea that the water was of poor quality? Given that there are so many factories along the banks of the Mae Klong River, one would think water quality tests would be conducted regularly. But the authorities only conducted the tests in a knee-jerk manner after the crisis had happened and it was much too late.
Even when the factory caused an "accidental leak", the authorities allowed it to operate, instead of suspending its operations until the problem had been fixed. My attempts to find an answer for why this was allowed were futile as the officer never took my calls again.
There must be many irresponsible factories which love to play hide-and-seek with environmental laws just like the sugar factory or the lead plant. What we need is strong law enforcement and astute authorities who can ensure action against foul play.
But, time and again, we are let down.