Parties work together to solve gold mine pollution
A five-party panel is working to help people affected by a gold mine in Phichit province through three measures, including a traditional-medicine programme to reduce their heavy-metal contamination.
Phichit Governor Surachai Kan-asa said yesterday a programme based on traditional medicine was found to have reduced the level of heavy metals in villagers’ blood in two weeks.
“That’s one of our measures,” he said.
These three measures were proposed at a meeting on how to alleviate the problem of contamination reportedly caused by Akara Resources, which operates a gold mine in the province.
The committee comprises representatives of local people, Akara Resources, academics, administrative officials and the military. Two other measures were to find water sources outside the affected areas and provide villagers with water purifiers so they can have clean drinking water. The governor proposed importing organic vegetables for villagers who cannot eat home-grown crops for fear of possible contamination.
Heavy metal substances have been identified in the blood samples of 401 out of 723 villagers, according to the Central Institute of Forensic Science and Rangsit University. The university has already agreed to local people’s request that it conduct tests on 6,000 more villagers.
