Villagers set to sue IEAT
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Some 114 local residents in Rayong's Map Tha Phut district have decided to file a lawsuit against the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT), demanding that it give them Bt160 million in compensation for environmental and health damages caused by
Suthi Atchasai, leader of the Eastern People’s Network, said the group was planning to take the case to the Administrative Court by February. The network is working on its claim and collecting evidence to show how people’s health has been affected by the industrial development from the Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate.
Local villagers hope to be given at least Bt1.4 million each in compensation.
In 2009, the Supreme Administrative Court issued an injunction to suspend 65 industrial projects in Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate on grounds that they negatively affected the health of residents and the environment.
IEAT governor Weerapong Chaiperm said his agency had been strictly controlling environmental conditions and had reduced the air pollution caused by the Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate over the past several years.
“The state of the environment in this area has improved already and factories in the estate no longer pollute the environment,” he said.
He went on to say that his agency had also implemented mitigating measures and had made the area a pollution-control zone over the past five years.
Similarly, in 2003, some 200 people in Lampang’s Mae Moh district had filed a lawsuit against Egat, demanding a compensation of Bt1 million each for the health damage caused by its coal power plant. In 2009, the Chiang Mai Administrative Court ordered the agency to pay up, but Egat appealed and the case is currently with the Supreme Court.
