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Published on December 1, 2007

Judge Dej Eamyim said the PCD had been negligent in its duty of cleaning up Klity Creek so that the water would be safe for the villagers to use. However, Dej said this was not the final judgement in the case.

Despite this, the villagers said they were happy to know that at least one judge supported them against the PCD.

"His statement made us very happy, but we have to wait for the verdict, and we don't know yet when it will be read," said Sompong Thongpachailai, who travelled more than 330 kilometres from the village in Thongphaphum district to listen to the statement in Bangkok yesterday.

Under the Administrative Court procedure, which requires a system of checks and balances among administrative judges, each case filed to the court is not only considered by the chamber of judges in charge of the case but also by judges who make recommendations on the case. Before the judges in charge of the case make their judgement, they must also to listen to the opinions of the other judges.

If the verdict handed down by the chamber goes against the recommendations, the chamber has to present more convincing reasons for its decision.

Besides demanding that the PCD compensate the villagers, Dej wants the PCD to declare Klity village and Klity Creek a pollution control zone. The PCD, said Dej, also has to demand compensation from the lead-mining company that polluted the creek.

Though Dej's statement was not a verdict, Surachai Jaitrong, a coordinator of Enlaw, a non-profit organisation acting as a legal representative for the villagers, said the statement was significant because it was the first time a state agency had been considered liable under the 1992 Environmental Protection Act.

The case was filed by 22 villagers in 2004, six years after villagers lodged a complaint with the PCD over lead contamination in Klity Creek. Although the Lead Concentrate Co, operator of the Klity lead mine, was ordered to shut down a year later, the creek has yet to be cleaned up.

Pennapa Hongthong

 The Nation