NGOs push harder for independent environmental body

       Activists are hoping to collect enough signatures this month to push for an independent environmental agency to monitor the impact of heavy industry on local communities.
       Non-governmental organisations have gathered half of the 100,000 signatures needed by the constitution to forward a draft organic law to parliament in relation to the constitution's Article 67.
       "We could not wait for the government to launch the organic law to set up an independent committee to decide on the serious issues which affect the lives and deaths of communities," Phairoj Pholphet, chairman of the NGO Coordinating Committee, told a recent seminar attended by community leaders affected by heavy industry such as steel production, power plants and gold mining.
       Mr Phairoj said another 50,000 names would be added to the petition by the end of the month.
       The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry is drafting an organic law on an independent organisation to screen heavy impact industries. But pressure from industry and political turbulence have stalled the process, the seminar was told.
       Article 67 stipulates that all factories with the potential to have a serious environmental impact on communities must be approved by an independent organisation made up of representatives of environmental and health groups,with health and environmental studies undertaken by tertiary institutes.
       But the Council of State ruled that authorities could process project appli-cations during the absence of the organic law to set up the body.
       The ruling has led to confrontations between villagers and project operators and local administrative organisations in several places including Map Ta Phut in Rayong's Muang district.
       Banjerd Singkaneti, a Thammasat University professor in law, said the Council of State could not interpret the constitution in a way that defied or undermined people's rights.
       The article must be strictly implemented.
       Heavy industries thought to be dangerous to communities should not be pushed through without public hearings and independent environmental and health impact assessments, he said.
       The National Human Rights Commission also warned the government against approving more factories in the Map Ta Phut industrial area after it was declared a pollution-control zone, as this could be taken as a violation of the constitution.
       Sanchai Sutiphanviharn, of Mahidol University's environmental and resources faculty, said the independent environmental agency would be duty-bound to consider the environment, health,archeological and tourist value of the affected areas.
       Detcharat Sukgamnerd, a researcher with the Foundation of Health, said during the absence of an organic law to enforce Article 67, communities could resort to the National Health Act which allowed a review of the health impact assessment of industries without having to wait for the environmental impact assessment.