Northern rivers face 'severe pollution'

A civil society group and several academics in Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai have issued an urgent letter to Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, demanding government intervention to address severe pollution in the Kok and Sai rivers, which flow into Thailand from Myanmar's Shan State.

- PANUMET TANRAKSA

The letter highlights "alarming" levels of sediment and heavy metal contamination in the rivers.

The pollution, they warned, poses a serious threat to the health and livelihoods of more than 1.2 million residents in Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai provinces, who depend on the rivers for consumption and farming.

"The Kok and Sai rivers have become increasingly polluted due to unregulated mining upstream in Myanmar," the letter says, citing 14 high-risk mining zones identified by the Pollution Control Department in 2023.

Five of those sites are located near rivers that cross into Thailand. Satellite images show large-scale land excavation in upstream areas.

Despite the growing threat, civil society groups say there has been no systematic effort to solve the trans-boundary pollution.