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The water conflict on the Mekong

By Nantiya Tangwisutijit

Ban Klang is a 400-year old village in Chiang Khan district, Loei province, Thailand. The village, home to more than 1,000 residents, is located next to Loei’s river mouth, connecting the tributary to mainstream of the Mekong River. The village is famous as a peaceful destination for tourists.

However, upon entering Ban Klang in recent times, visitors are surprised to notice banners hanging in-front of residents’ houses throughout the town, declaring “No Si Song Rak water gate here” and “Ban Klang residents do not need Si Song Rak water gate.” These are just examples of the rising water conflict in the Mekong region.

Japan pledges Bt245 bn for Mekong connectivity

By Nantiya Tangwisutijit

Japan yesterday launched the Japan-Mekong Connectivity Initiative, pledging 750 billion yen (Bt245 billion) for the development of linkages in the region for the next three years while hoping Thailand would be able to restore political stability quickly enough to become a leading partner for the scheme.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, who concluded his two-day visit to Thailand yesterday, announced the initiative during his policy speech at Chulalongkorn University to “set the tone” of Japanese presence in the region.

Connectivity is a key for regional integration, he said.

Concern over big power projects on exemption list

By Nantiya Tangwisutijit

POWER-PLANT projects that could generate up to 30,778 megawatts, proposed in the Power Development Plan 2015, have shown up in the city-planning exemption list announced by the National Energy Policy Council, raising concern among environmental activists over unregulated development.

Thursday’s announcement also includes alternative power projects under the Alternative Energy Development Plan 2015 and LNG (liquefied natural gas) station and receiving-terminal projects under the Gas Plan 2015.

The controversial Mae Wong Dam in Nakhon Sawan is also on the list appended to the announcement.

Surachai Trongngam, secretary-general of the Environmental Litigation and Advocacy for the Wants Foundation, said the announcement was clarification of a previous National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) order, 4/2559, and gave more specific information on which projects were being included in the city-law exemption list.

NEO-Esaan Movement order to stop NCPO’s order no. 3, 4, 9/2559

By Paritta Wangkiat

NEO-Essan Movement released statement which results in the deprivation of citizens’ rights in a number of areas in the Northeast as well as other areas around the country. From the statement, it was claimed that the NCPO’s orders destroyed the public participation rights instead of protecting it, undisclosed the information to public instead of promoting public freedom of expression which is a fundamental rights of every citizen.

Myanmar : Aung San Suu Kyi and China’s Options

By Nantiya Tangwisutijit

Bhaskar Roy As Myanmar nears a historic political transition, the incoming National League for Democracy (NLD) will have a lot on their plate. They will face the enormous challenge of steering the country according to their plans. Having struggled for two and a half decades against a hardline military rule, they will have a clearer […]

Villagers opposed the building of coal-fired power plant in Krabi province

By Paritta Wangkiat

A large crowd gathered together to protest the government controversial plan to build coal-fired power plant in Krabi province. The villagers welcomed the arrival of members of Thailand’s National Legislative Assembly (NLA) members and symbolic protested Krabi coal-fired power plant by standing in a row holding 50-meter-long banner “No Krabi Coal-Fired Power Plant” in front of the City Hall. Many environmentalists and locals have expressed concerns about the plan, fearing its environmental impacts, which could worsen the security situation in the already volatile Deep South.

Charter writers agree to spell out community rights

By Nantiya Tangwisutijit

The Constitution Drafting Committee has agreed to spell out in the new draft communities’ right to sue state agencies and the requirement for environmental and health impact assessments for all large projects following numerous complaints.

The move came after people in the provinces, environmental activists and academics had criticised the omissions of community rights provisions present in Section of 67 of the 2007 charter.

Charter writers explained earlier they had taken a different approach to protecting the rights. Instead of putting them in the Rights and Liberties chapter like in the previous constitution, they included them by implication in the State Duties chapter. While they claimed the effects were the same, activists and communities were not comfortable with the change.

Post-Paris: Journalism Climate in Bangkok Remains Mild

By Nantiya Tangwisutijit

As the enthusiastic narrative from the Paris climate change agreement of last month continues, conversations with Thai journalists offer a cautionary data point that may resonate beyond this society of sixty million.

“Other than the words climate change, the fundamental issues behind it, actions to address it have really not been much of a concern to the Thai people,” says Paritta Wangkiat of Bangkok Post, the only Thai journalist to cover the Paris talks. “At best it’s a trendy slogan to deploy when discussing unusual weather patterns. But there is a serious lack of commitment from policy makers and society including media organizations to take part in the global effort to reduce CO2.

Some 6,000 journalists worldwide applied for accreditation, and facilities were available to service 3,000 at one time, but not many from the Mekong region?