The battle of Map Ta Phut

21 september 2009

Last week a minister floated the idea of ending the era in which Thailand has passively welcomed polluting industries. There is no immediate need to celebrate or panic. Ministers have only a limited effect on industrial policy, especially in the new post-democratic era. But we do seem to be approaching a critical moment in a battle that has raged around Map Ta Phut.

Natural gas was first piped onshore from wells in the Gulf of Thailand in 1981. Government had plans for a state-owned petrochemical complex on the Eastern Seaboard. Those plans died when the government went broke in the financial crisis of 1983-4. When the economy then took off from 1986 onwards, the gas fuelled largely private-sector development with little regulation. The area around the pipeline’s landfall at Map Ta Phut became a centre for petrochemicals, chemicals, steel, cement and other heavy industries, all with high potential for pollution. By 2008, there were 117 plants, mostly large scale.

In the mid 1990s, Chang Noi by chance talked to the pollution control officer of one of the major Map Ta Phut plants. He was going overseas to study because he had realized that neither he nor anyone else in the company had any idea how to manage the pollution their plant was emitting. Chilling.

Around the same time, villagers in the area began to complain about the mess in their backyard. In 1997, a whole school full of children and their teachers fell sick from respiratory disease. The press carried occasional reports on leaks and spills. The Nation ran a series of articles about mercury pollution of the nearby sea and  its fish.

By the early 2000s, researchers had begun to document the impact of out-of-control pollution on the local people. The incidence of leukaemia is five times the national average. Ten carcinogenic compounds are present in the atmosphere in high concentrations. An unusually large number of genetic defects are found among children born in the area. The National Cancer Institute documented high rates of respiratory disease and lung cancer. A 2006 report found that the accumulation of heavy metals in the local environment far exceeded safety levels—cadmium by six times, manganese by 34 times, lead by 47 times, iron by 151 times.

Of course, there were attempts to challenge and undermine several of these figures. But the conclusion is undeniable. This large concentration of heavy industry is quite simply poisoning large numbers of people living locally.

Villagers began to organize, but initially got nowhere. In 2006, government planned to transfer 700 rai, formerly reserved for residential and agricultural use, into an industrial area to accommodate another major expansion of investment. Villagers took the opportunity to demand that the whole Map Ta Phut area be designated as a pollution control zone. This would require the Pollution Control Department of the Ministry of Industry to strictly enforce environmental controls, especially on toxic emissions. The Department backed the proposal. In reality, it was amazing that this area had not been designated long before as its industrial concentration is greater than thirteen other areas already designated.

Business owners objected to this proposal. They lobbied the industry minister under the 2006 coup government. They promised to clean up their own act under an “integrated toxic-emission control plan” including the provision of more health facilities for local inhabitants. In short, anything but formal regulation. The minister agreed.

But the villagers did not give up. Instead they petitioned the provincial court to mandate a proper pollution control zone. The court ruled in their favour in March 2009. What followed was not pretty. Individual firms predicted that foreign confidence in Thailand would collapse and firms would migrate to Vietnam. The Joint Foreign Chambers, who often like to present themselves as responsible upholders of international standards, muttered that they were “not very happy” at the judgement. The Federation of Thai Industries came up with the wonderfully dishonest argument that the designation would ruin local tourism because “travelers may not want to go to the province,” and would ruin local agriculture because “consumers may start wondering if fruit from the province is contaminated.” In short, please let us go on poisoning people.

To his great credit, Abhisit resisted pressure on the government to appeal against the provincial court ruling. The zone goes ahead, though not without difficulty

There has been a parallel battle over how to manage industrial planning to prevent yet more pollution. The 1997 constitution gave local communities rights in decisions affecting their environment, but with no detail in the provision and no mechanism to enforce it. Sections 67 of the 2007 constitution added some detail by requiring proper evaluation of the health and environmental impact on local communities by “an independent organisation, consisting of representatives from private environmental and health organisations and from higher education institutions.”

. As a consequence of this clause, several new projects in Map Ta Phut were frozen, prompting yet more apocalyptic predictions of imminent national economic collapse. These have now been allowed to go ahead. But there is still dispute over how Section 67 should be enforced. Activists want proper legislation to enact the constitutional clause and an expert independent body to oversee health and environmental assessments. Government agencies would prefer to work through ministerial regulations, and to form this “independent organization” effectively within the bureaucratic structure. It’s not difficult to guess which option the business lobby prefers. Abhisit seems to be going along with the bureaucratic line by instructing the Environment Ministry to draw up the appropriate regulations.

Almost every large-scale industrial project in Thailand now faces bitter local protest. That protest arises because of a complete lack of trust. That lack of trust arose because government failed to regulate and business ruthlessly exploited that failure. How to overcome this lack of trust? The rule of law might help. Stonewalling with panicky predictions won’t. The business lobby is not covering itself in glory in the battle of Map Ta Phut.