Thai Lead Mine Inflicts Lasting Scars on Village

Outward emotions are rare in this village. Grown-ups stare into nothing. Children run around without a word or sit motionless. Some kids alternate between breathless activity and death-like lethargy.

As fictional as it sounds, the horrors of Klity Lang village are real, unequivocal proof that havoc caused by human actions knows no ecological boundaries.

Every one of Klity Lang’s 221 inhabitants suffers from lead poisoning by drinking water from the Klity Creek, which for years had been flooded with waste water discharged by a lead mining company upstream.

“The whole village is dying,” says Yaloer Nasuansuwan, the deputy village chief, who suffers from chronic fatigue and muscle pain.

Klity Lang has become Thailand’s biggest test case for health officials and environmental activists fighting to prevent pollution in a country where the “polluters-pay-principle” is only just finding acceptance.

The mine and its ore-cleaning plant, owned by Lead Concentrates (Thailand) Co., were ordered closed by the government in 1998, the company fined $44. In April, the company gave $22,200 to the villagers in compensation, which activists and victims dismiss as inadequate and an evasion of responsibility.

Recently, a volunteer group, the Karen Studies Development Center, announced that it has begun gathering evidence against the company for a planned lawsuit. It says closing the mine was not enough and the company should remove the polluted silt, which it had dredged from the creek and simply buried on the bank.

“Klity Lang’s days are numbered unless action is taken immediately. Years of poisoning is taking its toll on the villagers’ genetics,” said Surapong Kongchantuk, director of the Karen center.

All children born in the last six years have been mentally retarded. They have stunted growth and suffer muscle coordination problems. Two girls were born without vaginas, while others have abnormally big heads.

“Never before have I seen such deformities,” said Surapong, who has worked with the Karen communities for more than 20 years.

The Pollution Control Department found that the lead content in Klity Creek was 10 times higher than World Health Organization standards. It said lead in the bloodstream of 39 children was found to be nearly twice the level sufficient to cause permanent brain damage.

Take for instance Jothipai, a 13-year-old boy. He never cries, never talks, knows no fear and cannot distinguish between heat and cold.

On good days, Jothipai sits idly for hours. On bad days, he becomes so hyperactive that his mother has to chain him for fear that he would fatally injure himself. He has broken his leg several times by jumping off trees, Yaloer said.

Adults have fared no better.

Thirty-year-old Manumia Thongpaphumcharerd says she started limping in 1993 and often found herself dropping into a dream world.

“It was like everything was blurred and I was losing myself all the time,” said the mother of five children, four of whom have motor-skill problems.

Her father and younger brother are among the 23 people who have died in the last eight years. Thirteen of the dead were children. Doctors said the deaths were caused by kidney failure, the result of lead poisoning.

Even more shocking, environmentalists contend, was that the mining company was polluting an area that is part of the Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary, a United Nations World Heritage site known for its superb flora and fauna.

State indifference to ecological concerns is the biggest hurdle for environmental groups. One month after the National Environment Board recommended terminating all mining activities in and around the sanctuary, the Cabinet approved a lead-mining plant project in another national park.

The campaign against lead concentrates also provides hope for those fighting for the long-ignored rights of minority ethnic groups such as the Karen tribe to which the Klity Lang people belong.

Klity Lang village was set up about 80 years ago when a group of Karens moved into the area, 68 miles west of Bangkok. They lived off the land and their cattle, with little contact with the outside world.

Even today, the villagers live in thatched-roof houses without electricity. There is a school, but only one teacher. Piped water was recently provided after the creek’s pollution.

However, Klity Lang residents knew how to live with nature.

Yaloer, the village assistant, said they began suspecting something was wrong a decade ago when everybody started suffering from the same symptoms: muscle and joint pain, fatigue, loss of appetite, chronic headaches, swelling and blindness.

According the Mineral Resources Department, the mine and its ore-flotation plant had been in the area for more than 40 years.

The complex was ordered closed several times after complaints by environmentalists. Each time, it promised to clean up its act. It even constructed a water-treatment system that was never used, an Environment and Science Ministry report says.

In 1998, mine authorities released tons of untreated water, turning the creek into a green, foul-smelling pool. The mine was ordered closed indefinitely and an investigation began immediately.

But help for the villagers has been negligible. Surapong’s voluntary group and other officials blame this on the mine owner’s political connections, which for a long time prevented his company from being investigated. Calls from the Associated Press to the mining company’s office went unanswered.

The villagers have received medicines only once from a donation by a philanthropist last October.

Relocation--recommended by experts as the best solution--is out of the question, the villagers says.

“Our ancestors tried all other areas in the forest before deciding on this place. We can’t move,” Yaloer said.