Sa Kaew resident burn coffins in biomass plant protest
Protesters from Tambon Wang Mai in Sa Kaew’s Wang Somboon district set fire to six coffins in an open area in the middle of Wang Mai Market on Monday night to protest against a sugar factory and 60-megawatt biomass power plant.
Residents also said they were considering submitting a petition to HM the King Maha Vajiralongkorn over the alleged lack of transparency and possible irregularities in the approval to an environmental impact assessment (EIA) report for the construction of the plant.
Protest leader Kanokkarn Wongchaiya said residents were gathering evidence and details about officials’ alleged wrongdoing, a lack of transparency and irregularities before they acted.
In early September, villagers held a macabre protest against the project by erecting protest signs made of cloth that is typically used to wrap corpses at their homes and various sites in their communities.
Villagers said they did not want the sugar factory and biomass power plant to be built near their communities and milk cattle cooperatives because it would affect milk production as well as the cultivation of mangoes for export and off-season longans.
They also expressed anger when the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning approved the project’s EIA report last Wednesday, allegedly without considering the villagers’ objections.
Villager Somjit Panpeng, 56, said the community would suffer from pollution if the power plant were built, while jobs and lifestyles would be harmed.
Resident Surin Yoosomboon urged state agencies to investigate the issue and recognise the villagers’ problems with what he termed “investors’ greed”.