Map Ta Phut projects under close watch

Suthi Atchasai, a campaigner against the expansion of the controversial Map Ta Phut industrial belt, said he was checking all the projects for environmental impact assessments (EIA) and approvals by public referendums as mandated by the Constitution.

He said his group and the villagers would soon petition the Central Administrative Court to make sure that the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP) regularly performed its duty in requiring all projects to undergo individual EIAs before their implementation.

ONEP secretary-general Nisakorn Khositrat said earlier that the first phase of the landfill project had caused erosion of the coastline, and that an assessment was being conducted to determine whether the second phase should commence without requiring another EIA.

She said her office was not an obstacle to the Bt400-billion master development plan for the Map Ta Phut area. Of all the 62 mega projects in the plan, 42 of them have passed EIA scrunity and the other 20 would be further evaluated under additional requirements.

ONEP had been performing its work transparently all along, she said.