Many residents of Lower Klity Creek village, Thailand, suffer the symptoms of chronic lead poisoning, such as abdominal pain, headaches, fatigue, and mood changes. Some children have been born with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Sixteen years of failure by Thailand's Pollution Control Department and public health authorities to prevent further exposure to lead among the village's ethnic Karen residents has exposed these villagers to toxic levels of lead in the water, soil, vegetable and fish.
A now-defunct lead-processing factory caused this monumental health and environmental damage, and a cleanup seems far away because the Thai government is ignoring a clear court order to clean up the creek and the surrounding vegetation.
This is one of the most heavily polluted industrial sites in all of Thailand, hundreds of people are suffering, and it needs immediate government action. Villagers are eating contaminated fish, eating contaminated vegetables and breathing in contaminated air while the Thai government is not only ignoring their plight, but thinking of opening more lead mines.
With unacceptable levels of lead in the soil, and with high levels of lead found in all the animal and river life, the situation can only get worse, and can easily become an even greater human disaster if it is ignored any longer. It is already an environmental disaster, but it is not too late.
Thailand needs to clean up Klity Creek and provide medical care to affected villagers. By signing this petition, you are taking action by urging the Thai government into obeying the court order to clean Klity Creek, to save the environment, and lives. Stand with me now and demand action.
