Toxic chemicals ban needs political will
Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Chalermchai Sri-on is the only minister who has three deputies, each of whom has been working hard to boost their popularity and seek budgets to finance their projects. Mr Chalermchai, a Democrat MP, will ask the cabinet to approve a 17-billion-baht budget to subsidise a farm price-guarantee scheme.
His deputy, Prapat Pothasuthon, has promised to tackle drought and will push for a costly water-management project. Another deputy, Thammanat Prompao, a Palang Pracharath Party MP, has been busy handling drought in his constituency in Phayao.
The other deputy is a newbie to national politics. Mananya Thaiseth is not an MP. She was appointed to the job because her brother, Uthai Thani MP Chada Thaiseth, who was the first candidate for it, decided not to take it, so the position went to her.
As an MP of the Bhumjaithai Party, Mr Chada’s record of being a suspect in a case involving the murder of a politician of the Pheu Thai Party made him a liability for the party and the government if he was appointed to the post, even though the charge against him has been dropped.
His sister, Ms Mananya, had served as mayor of Muang Uthai Thani municipality for more than a decade. But she also has a questionable background over the handling of a 300-million-baht wastewater project, which is unfinished even though all the budget was spent. The contractor had abandoned the work. She then asked the state for an additional 270-million-baht to finish the project. But her request was rejected after a probe by the State Audit Office shed light on irregularities with the project.
But shall we let bygones be bygones and give these politicians time to prove their worth?
For Ms Mananya, she made an interesting start to her interesting career on Tuesday when she told the media she will push for a ban on three controversial farm chemicals by the end of this year.
The weed killers paraquat, glyphosate and chlorpyrifos have been widely used by farmers in Thailand. Paraquat, in particular, has already been banned in 53 countries
due to concerns over its health impacts. The other two are not banned but have their use restricted in several countries.
“These farm chemicals have been allowed to be used for too long. It is about time that they be banned,” she said. She has set up a meeting to be held on Aug 20 to discuss revisions of relevant laws and regulations and has ordered officials to set up a working group to conduct a study into the issue.
I hope she succeeds in her goal. Among her peers, she is the first to dared try and solve such a hot potato issue. The rest of them just came up with conventional populist projects.
Handling this issue has been a tough call for agriculture ministers because it involves massive vested interests among various stakeholders in the agriculture industry and some farmer groups. Supporters of the chemicals have always resisted calls for a ban, and among them is the Department of Agriculture — the agency that Ms Mananya will directly supervise.
My fear is that her policy may not materialise if she only listens to department officials.
In 2017, the Ministry of Public Health pushed for the national committee overseeing the import and use of hazardous chemicals to ban the weed killers from January this year after academics’ reports showed that they could have a harmful impact on human health. However, the panel decided otherwise, allowing the use of the chemicals on farmlands to continue after heavy lobbying by the Department of Agriculture which sits on the committee.
The Agriculture Ministry’s stance shows it has little concern for public health. Instead, the department has only issued a regulation requiring all traders of the chemicals to have a licence to sell them and that users and sellers receive training.
The department has tried to skirt calls for a ban on the chemicals. It has just set a two-year timeframe for a new study on alternatives to them. It has said that a ban will be considered only if restrictions on the use of the chemicals prove ineffective.
Ms Mananya was right when she said these chemicals have been allowed to be used for too long. What she needs to realise is that it was the ministry that allowed this to happen in the first place.
There is no need for further studies if she wants to impose a ban on the chemicals because there have already been many. The issue just needs political will and this is a new opportunity for Ms Mananya to prove her mettle.
‘‘ Mananya is right when she said these chemicals have been allowed to be used for too long.