Bangkok: Mr. Pattarapong Leelaphat, an MP for Chiang Mai from the People's Party, has publicly urged Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul to leverage the upcoming 48th ASEAN Summit to address the pressing issue of toxic pollution in rivers shared with neighboring countries.

According to Thai News Agency, Mr. Pattarapong communicated his concerns through a Facebook post, emphasizing the persistent pollution in the Kok, Sai, Ruak, Mekong, and Salween rivers. He criticized the government's continued silence on the matter and the delay in addressing it through foreign policy.

Mr. Pattarapong proposed that the Prime Minister highlight this issue during the ASEAN Summit, scheduled for May 7-8, by integrating it into the "Food Security" agenda, which links directly to water pollution, or the "Disaster Resilience" agenda proposed by the Philippines. He emphasized the severe impact on food security and public health in the affected river basins, citing tests that revealed arsenic levels ten times higher than the standard, rendering aquatic life unsafe for consumption and contaminating crops with heavy metals.

Mr. Pattarapong also suggested the establishment of a central ASEAN database system for disaster and emergency management, which would include inspection data from Laos and Myanmar using standardized methods. He proposed that Thailand could finance these inspections through the Department of International Cooperation. The central database would be hosted at the AHA Centre in Indonesia and coordinate efforts to monitor the ASEAN mining supply chain, including adjustments to customs classifications for detailed mineral identification. This would lay the groundwork for discussions with China under the ASEAN-China cooperation framework.

The ASEAN Summit presents a critical opportunity to address the root causes of the pollution problem, which Mr. Pattarapong argues the Thai government has neglected for too long. The initiative aims to alleviate public fear and underscore Thailand's commitment to tackling environmental issues that impact the health and livelihoods of its citizens, particularly in northern and northeastern regions.

Mr. Pattarapong urged Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul to seriously pursue this matter at the international level, marking the beginning of earnest efforts to resolve the long-standing challenges faced by Thailand's northern communities. He asserted that this issue transcends environmental concerns, affecting the very health and lives of the Thai people, and pledged that he and the People's Party would continue to monitor the situation closely through the committee's work.