SAHAVIRIYA PROJECT
APINYA WIPATAYOTIN
Rising tensions between giant steel manufacturer Sahaviriya and local villagers in Prachuap Khiri Khan can be defused by having local villagers take part in the environmental impact assessment (EIA) consideration process, says the National Human Rights Commission. Conflicts between those opposed to Sahaviriya's smelting plant in Bang Saphan district and the firm over the past few years have led to several violent clashes between the locals and the project supporters.
Commissioner Sunee Chaiyarose said allowing villagers who are adversely affected by the investment project to have a say in the EIA process would be an effective tool in discouraging future confrontations between the two sides.
People's participation in any decision-making process involving a project that can impact their livelihoods is demanded under article 67 of the constitution, she said.
If allowed to build, the smelting plant would impact negatively on the villagers' lives, health, and the surrounding environment, she said.
Buntoon Srethasirote, director of the NHRC's strategic policy on natural resources-based project, said that locals should be given full access to the project developer's EIA report so that they know to what degree it would impact their lives and communities. ''The EIA approval process should no longer be confidential. It should be made public.''
Under the law, the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning is in charge of the EIA screening and consideration process before forwarding the report for the National Environment Board's approval. The NEB is chaired by the prime minister.
The NHRC earlier asked Sahaviriya to disclose the project's EIA report, but the firm refused, saying it contained confidential information about the firm's investment and production procedures.
Meanwhile, Bang Saphan villager Witoon Buaroi, who led a local protest against the smelting plant recently, said: ''The experts should not just sit in the office and read the company's paper. They should visit the project site to see what is really going on.''
Harnarong Yaowaloes, of the National Economic and Social Advisory Board, said when he was asked to review the 600-page EIA report, he found that it lacked clear measures on how to mitigate the project's environment impacts.
Sahaviriya Steel Group recently resubmitted the EIA report for its 90-billion-baht steel smelter after the company revised its first version to exclude the controversial wetland areas claimed by the villagers as the most pristine swamp in the district.
However, villagers are afraid the project will destroy the fragile ecological system of the wetland and have vowed to continue opposing the project.
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