PCD under fire over ‘slow’ clean-up effort
The Pollution Control Department (PCD) has been accused of dragging its feet in cleaning up the heavily polluted Klity Creek in Kanchanaburi, still unfinished after a Supreme Administrative Court order five years ago.
Surapong Kongchantuk, director of the Karen Studies and Development Centre, said yesterday the PCD has hardly lifted a finger over the last five years to remove highly toxic sediment left in the waterway.
The court, in January 2013, ordered the PCD to remove the sediment from the creek, which was polluted by waste discharge from a now-defunct lead mine.
Since then, the agency has only partially removed sediment and buried it in a nearby forest, Mr Surapong claimed.
The PCD’s clean-up method might also pose a risk to the ecology, wildlife and local people because the sediment could leak back into the creek, he said.
“I don’t understand why the PCD opted to remove lead from certain spots along the creek bed and not take all of it from the waterway and the mining plant itself for proper treatment,” said Mr Surapong, who has been assisting Karen villagers affected by the pollution.
The problem is that water from Klity Creek also runs downstream to the Kwai Yai and Mae Klong rivers, major water sources for Kanchanaburi and Bangkok, he added.
“The water is used to make tap water for residents in western Bangkok and also flows into the Gulf of Thailand,” Mr Surapong said, referring to the Maha Sawat canal which receives water from the Mae Klong.
The Klity Creek case and the slow-pace in cleaning it up has become one of the country’s longest running environmental disputes.
Lead Concentrate Co, was blamed for releasing the lead waste into the creek.
The pollution was exposed in 1998 and the company was soon forced to halt operations.
However, the pollution remains because of a prolonged lawsuit between the company and affected villagers.
Last year, the Supreme Administrative Court’s environment section ordered the company to help the PCD in the clean-up effort and pay 151 villagers a total of 36 million baht in compensation, but it reportedly has not done so.
Karen villagers still cannot use Klity Creek — their main water source.
Around 10,000 metric tonnes of lead sediment is reportedly still in the creek despite the PCD being ordered to remove it five years ago.
The PCD says it hired Better World Green Co in November last year to clean the creek over a period of 1,000 days.
The firm was contracted to clean stretches covering more than 6km by August, 2020.