Toxic rivers need help

The government's reaction to heavy metal contamination in transboundary rivers in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces has left local villagers in despair. Almost three months after heavy metal contamination was recently detected in such rivers, our officials and ministers are still just at the stage of warning people not to consume water and fish from the Kok River in the North.

- 

The Paetongtarn government and the army still cannot find a way to hold talks with the United Wa State Army (UWSA), a powerful militia that controls part of eastern Shan State, where almost 20 gold mines are operating. Mining areas are connected to transboundary rivers such as the Sai, Kok, and Mekong rivers. It would not be surprising if these mines did not have waste disposal systems to treat wastewater and toxic byproducts before discharging them into the environment.

Deputy PM Phumtham Wechayachai admits that negotiating pollution reduction is difficult because these mining activities are not in Thailand. "The best thing we can do is to protect ourselves," he said.