A “Peace Walk for Rivers” concluded in Thailand’s Chiang Rai Province on World Environment Day June 5 with urgent calls for government action and corporate accountability over transboundary river contamination.
The environmental mobilization began on May 31 in Mae Ai district of Chiang Mai Province with “Peace Walk for Rivers” participants trekking for five days.
Civil society groups, environmental experts, and ethnic nationalities living along the Kok, Sai, Ruak, Mekong, and Salween river basins presented a formal petition to the Thai government at the Chiang Rai Provincial Hall.
They demand that heavy metal and arsenic contamination, linked to upstream mining operations in Myanmar, be immediately elevated to a national emergency agenda in Thailand.
“We call for the government, particularly the Prime Minister of Thailand, as well as relevant ministers, to participate in a meeting with affected people, with scientists, with scholars, and with civil society groups,” said Pai Deetes, the executive director at Rivers and Rights.
“We prepared a strong demand to uplift this issue to the national level, because Chiang Rai Province or Chiang Mai Province alone cannot tackle this problem,” she added.
