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Article

23 Sep 2017

Author:
Pratch Rujivanarom, The Nation

Thailand: Activists criticise new environment bill as inadequate

"Activists vow to fight environment bill", 23 September 2017

Environmental activists…jointly protested against the new Enhancement and Conservation of National Environmental Quality Bill for not doing enough to protect the environment….

The group…gathered at the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry…to address their concerns over flaws in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environmental and Health Impact Assessment (EHIA) as well as other shortcomings in the bill.

…Environmental Litigation and Advocacy for the Wants Foundation manager Supaporn Malailoi said “…We do not see any improvement in this bill, as the problematic principles are still retained,” Supaporn said.

 “The people from around the country suffered a lot from the bad previous EIA/EHIA. Many EIA/EHIA reports were poorly done and inaccurate, but still they passed and allowed the problematic projects to go ahead,” she said.

Deputy permanent secretary of Natural Resources and Environment Ministry Somchai Masathian met the protesters and said the ministry acknowledged their concerns….

“We need to renew our environmental law to suit the changing situation and by doing so we have to revise the old law and make it better. I will ensure that this law will be a good legal tool to prevent adverse environmental impacts on the people,” Somchai said.