Inviting another ecological disaster?

The Nation wrote:Inviting another ecological disaster?

Thu, August 31, 2006

The proposal for a huge potash mine in Udorn Thani glosses over the potential for massive damage to the environment

Udorn Thani province is at a crossroads: it could become home to the world's third largest potash mine or remain protected as the country's rice bowl. It's a familiar development dilemma seen over the past few decades. It turned out, however, that we often ended up opting for economic benefits, only to realise years later that we had made the wrong choice. Increasingly, we find that large infrastructure projects fall short of economic expectations whereas their social and environmental impacts turn out to be greater than estimated.

How to avoid repeating the mistake then? The answer actually lies in a basic principle known to every democratic society: that we have to make the decision-making process transparent with the widest participation from stakeholders. We have made mistakes in the past at the expense of taxpayers and the ecological system. But now it's time to do the right thing.

The mining project is full of irregularities. This would have slipped public attention had it not been for the critical observation by an environmental group of the recent amendment of the mining law. The key amended issue is to allow mining operations under 100 metres below the ground without the need to notify people living above the mining area. Such an operation is unprecedented in Thailand. The environmental group alleges that the law amendment is to pave the way for the Canadian mining firm Asia Pacific Potash Corporation (APPC) to operate under the 15,000 rai area covering two districts south of Udon Thani city in which more than 30,000 people live. The company plans to apply for a mining licence from the Thai government by the end of this year.

The APPC claims it has found the world's third largest potash deposit in the province. It asserts that Thailand as an agricultural country would benefit from the finding as potash is a key ingredient in fertilisers. But this assertion is absurd since the company's business plan clearly states that it will export most of potash from the mine to China. The most Thailand would get is a 7-per-cent royalty from the mining operation.

The company also defended its operation by stating that it had conducted an environmental-impact assessment (EIA) which had already been approved by the Thai government. It guaranteed that it would operate what would be the largest mine in Thailand with the "highest" international standards.

However, existing evidence points in the opposite direction. Firstly, Canadian environmental groups reported APPC was 90 per cent owned by Asia Pacific Resources, a small Canadian firm that has never operated a mine. Worse, its "world-class" EIA turned out to be what some geologists and environmentalists called an "unbearable deception".

What's absent from the "studies" is a crucial investigation into such major impacts as soil subsidence and leakage of potassium-salt waste into natural waterways. Thai and Canadian environmentalists estimate that the salt-waste stockpile - which would be taller than all but a few buildings in Udon Thani city - could contaminate soil and water supplies over a vast area.

The Office of Environmental Policy and Planning will have a lot to answer for. Its executives must be held responsible if the EIA for the planned potash mining is found to be substandard. This agency, which was set up to oversee the country's environmental protection, has on several occasions been accused of approving sloppily prepared EIAs for bad projects, leading to ecological damage.

The government must avoid making the same mistakes in handling our country's development projects. The government did the right thing recently when it ordered the scrapping of the controversial Klong Dan waste-water treatment plant even though the project was 90 per cent complete and several billion baht of government budget had gone down the drain. We must not allow the Udon Thani potash-mining operation to turn into another costly mistake.