Independent Expert Kamol Criticizes Thailand's Waste Policy Citing Foreign Investment and Flood Risks

Key summary

Kamol Kamontarut, an independent academic, posted on Facebook on October 23, 2024, criticizing the Thai government's waste management policies. He stated that toxic substances from hazardous waste spread through floodwaters into farmland, gardens, rivers, and canals, contaminating produce and aquatic life. Kamol cited data from the Department of Business Development as of September 30, 2024, indicating 2,863 foreign-invested companies in Thailand's waste business (2,568 non-hazardous and 295 hazardous). He distinguished these figures from nearly 3,000 factories under industrial ministry inspection licenses. Kamol warned that even after floods recede, chemicals seep into soil and natural water sources, citing lead poisoning and peripheral neuropathy as long-term health risks according to Ramathibodi Hospital data. He argued that pollution would spread via water flow to provinces like Chachoengsao and eventually the Gulf of Thailand. Kamol called for the government to close hazardous waste disposal plants and ban the import of electronic waste, toxic chemicals, and other hazardous waste, stating that current regulatory mechanisms have failed.