Time to tackle toxic spill

As the problem of scammer gangs in Myawaddy, Myanmar, tapers off, another serious transboundary problem emerged with the Pollution Control Department, under the Environmental Ministry, issuing a ban on April 4 against the use of water in the Kok River, which runs from Myanmar into Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai provinces.

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The health caution came after water samples were taken from the river in Chiang Rai’s Mae Ai district near the Thai-Myanmar border. The river was found to have toxic arsenic content two times above safe levels. The standard level of arsenic in natural watercourses is 0.01 milligrammes per litre (mg/L), but the samples from the Kok River contained 0.026mg/L. Other samples of water and sediments showed signs of high arsenic levels and other heavy metals.