Thread: Thai Authorities Fail to Clean Lead-Poisoned Creek Despite Supreme Court Order

KANCHANA BURI – Hundreds of Karen families in Klity Creek Kanchanaburi Province are suffering from lead poisoning near a polluted creek that the government has failed to clean up despite a court order two years ago, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.

In 1998, Lead Concentrates (Thailand) closed a mine in Klity Creek in Kanchanaburi province, but the 400 or so ethnic Karen subsistence farmers living in a nearby village struggle with health problems and continue to fight for a cleanup, the watchdog group said in a report.

In what activists hailed as a landmark ruling, the Supreme Administrative Court in January 2013 ordered the government to pay $125,000 in compensation and clean up the site.

“This is a test case for whether rule of law really means anything in Thailand when the poor and powerless take on a state agency that has been negligent,” Phil Robertson, HRW’s deputy director for Asia, told Reuters.

“If the (Pollution Control Department) can defy an order from the Supreme Administrative Court without facing severe consequences, it spreads the word that government agencies can do what they want.”

Residents of Lower Klity Creek village suffer the symptoms of chronic lead poisoning, such as abdominal pain and headaches, and children born with severe developmental disabilities, the HRW report said.

More here: Thai Authorities Fail to Clean Lead-Poisoned Creek Despite Supreme Court Order | Chiang Rai Times English Language Newspaper

Originally Posted by misskit

In what activists hailed as a landmark ruling, the Supreme Administrative Court in January 2013 ordered the government to pay $125,000 in compensation and clean up the site.

“This is a test case for whether rule of law really means anything in Thailand when the poor and powerless take on a state agency that has been negligent,” Phil Robertson, HRW’s deputy director for Asia, told Reuters.

What should be a test case is why the Supreme Court ordered the government, using tax payers money, to pay compensation for and clean up something done by a private company for profit.

Irrespective of culpability, there is no meaningful rule of law in Thailand.

I will take a bet that the money that was allocated to clean the creek is long gone.