TRANSCRIPT
In the village of Tha Ton, nestled in the hills just three kilometres from Thailand’s border with Myanmar, there is little to life without the Kok River.
For hundreds of years, it has provided fish for their families, water for their crops and, in the stifling summer heat, a place for their children to cool down.
For Gob Kotekham, it’s where he’s been making rafts all his life.
“Every year when I make the rafts, I might get a rash or two, but within a week it would go away. This time, there were a lot of rashes and they kept spreading. It was itchy; I had never felt that before. At first, I thought I was allergic to something, but then the people who were helping me with the rafts got sick as well. My friend got cut, and his wound wouldn’t heal. Another person went into the water and felt feverish. Then, after two months it still hadn’t gone away, so I went to see the doctor.”
By that point, the Kok River was turning a strange shade of orange, and the reports of illness were becoming difficult to ignore.
Two children, aged two and six years old, became sick after eating fish from the river. Test results showed abnormally high levels of arsenic in their bodies. Fish began washing up dead, and fishermen started reporting odd deformities among their daily catch. Elephants that had long been bathed in the river began to develop unusual skin rashes and boils.
Officials from Thailand’s Pollution Control Department came to test the water. They discovered arsenic levels three times higher than the safe limit.
Local authorities then ordered everyone to stay out of the water, putting this village’s largest source of income off limits - and putting Mr Kotekham in debt.
“When I made the rafts, I had to buy wood. I invested around 50-60,000 baht, and this year, there is no one coming - not a single customer. So, we are all in debt. Not just me; the whole village.”
Eight successive rounds of water testing have now confirmed dangerously high levels of arsenic in the Kok River.
At first, it was widely blamed on gold mining upstream in Myanmar; a common cause of arsenic contamination.
Then, researchers at the Shan Human Rights foundation saw satellite images showing two rare earth mining sites over the border in southern Shan State, where the Kok River originates.
Spokesperson for the group Sai Hark Jet says the mining sites sit between two and three kilometres from the river's banks, in territory under the control of the United Wa State Army; Shan State's most powerful militia.
“We also compared them with the rare earth mining in Kachin, and the layout of the leeching pools are the same. So, we said that this is not just ordinary mineral extraction or mining, this must be tied up with rare earth mining in Kachin State. We also have heard from local people that all the water is very brown and they cannot use it anymore, but they have to because they have no other water source. The community in Shan State dare not speak up, because of the local authority.”
The United Wa State Army has not responded to SBS's requests for comment.
Rare earth mining uses chemicals to separate the valuable minerals from their ore. The process leaves behind a highly contaminated liquids that often finds their way back into the environment’s waterways if care is not taken to contain them.
Thai authorities say they are working on plans to urgently install sediment traps in the Kok River to stop the arsenic flowing downstream.
But local leaders in Tha Ton fear that alone will not solve this crisis.
Local monk Phra Mahanikom wants to see Bangkok engage directly with Myanmar’s military leaders in Naypyidaw to end all unregulated mining across the border.
“If we just try to solve the problem by reviving the river without closing the mines, we cannot solve the issue. And if it cannot be fixed, then the community will change. Our way of life will change.”
Phra Mahanikom was born and raised in Tha Ton. After moving away to study, he returned to preside over Wat Tha Ton; a temple perched on a hilltop that overlooks the village and its river.
“I bathed in the Kok River on the day I was born. The day I first hear the news, I went onto the bridge and I looked out onto the river. It was muddy, very muddy. That day, I felt like my mother was in the ICU and I was behind the glass doors. I couldn’t speak to her, I couldn’t touch her, I couldn’t give her support, even one bit. That’s how I felt.”
Tha Ton is a village of less than 20,000 people. Almost all of them rely on the river in one way or another for their survival.
Right now, during the wet season, there is enough water running off the region’s mountains to keep their crops watered. But soon, the village will once again need to rely on water from the river.
a Boonruang has lived in the same house right beside the Kok River for more than 50 years. He says farming and fishing is all he has ever known.
“Before, if we didn’t have enough water, we could just go get it from the river and carry it to our farms. But now, it is very dangerous. It impacts everyone. Not just one person, not just the whole village, the whole river - however many kilometres it is.”
The contamination has already spread further than that. After it passes through Tha Ton, the Kok River empties into the Mekong - Southeast Asia’s most important waterway - where abnormally high levels of arsenic have already been detected.
So far, Thai authorities have taken water samples from three locations spanning a roughly 20 kilometre stretch of the Mekong River.
All have shown arsenic levels exceeding the safe limit.
In the small village of Ban Sob Kok, about 15 kilometres downstream from the border with Myanmar, local fisherman Somdet Thanatulayakul says they have already started finding deformed fish in their daily catch.
“There were some fish with scars. We saw them, so we didn’t eat them, but they took them for testing, and when they came back, they had the arsenic. Buyers are now afraid to eat the fish because of the news. Before, I could earn more than 1000 baht per day, but now, we can’t even get 300 baht in a week.”
There is now growing evidence rare earth mining is causing the contamination crisis.
The Thai Government commissioned Naresuan University Associate Professor Tanapon Phenrat to study the water.
“We took water, soil, sediment and some edible plants together with fish from five stations in Chiang Rai. We quantified around 15 types of elements or ions in water samples. Then we compared the ‘fingerprints of chemicals’ - which is the ratio of different elements - with the water samples we got from rare earth mining in Kachin. The concentration in Thailand is lower, but the ratio of chemicals are still similar. This should lead to the conclusion, or at least the identification, that it has to do mostly with rare earth mining.”
Mapping by the Thai Governemnt's Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency has now detected 60 disturbed earth sites across Shan State with suspected links to mining, 21 of which it says are newly active this year.
It doesn’t distinguish between regular mines and rare earth mines, but the Shan Human Rights Foundation says its mapping has detected a total of 47 rare earth mining sites across Shan State.
Many of them are close to neighbouring China, which imported a record high of nearly 42,000 metric tonnes of rare earths from Myanmar in 2023.
So far, Associate Professor Tanapon says the arsenic levels detected in the Mekong River are still far lower than that found in three of its tributaries that originate in Myanmar's Shan State; the Kok, Sai and Ruak rivers.
But he believes we are not yet seeing the full impact.
“Pollutants take time to transport. When we say arsenic, lead, they are in particulates, they are in small sediments that form in the river. These things do not transport as fast as water. It will form more particulates, more sediment and will transport, wave by wave, there will be more impact for sure. This is not at a steady state yet.”
Thailand, Laos and Myanmar all meet on the Mekong River. It then continues downstream into Cambodia and Vietnam, supporting 60 million people through fisheries, agriculture and drinking water before emptying into the South China Sea.
That is how far environmentalist Pianporn Deetes from NGO International Rivers is warning the contamination could spread if it is not contained.
“This is the largest environmental crime I have ever experienced. It is long-term violence. The result might not be seen within a year or two, but it might show itself in the next three, five or 10 years with the newborns. Public health is the most concerning issue for us. We don’t want to see our future generations be sick.”
Thai activists believe Chinese investors are largely behind the surge in mining across Shan State.
Beijing controls roughly 70 per cent of rare earth mining operations globally, and accounts for 90 per cent of their processing, during which the minerals are converted into elements used in a wide range of modern technologies, including smartphones, weapons systems and rechargeable batteries.
In June, China's embassy in Bangkok responded to the contamination reports, saying: "China has instructed Chinese companies operating abroad to comply with the laws of the country and operate legally at all times."
But Ms Deetes says most of the mining sites identified are in areas outside the control of Myanmar's military government, meaning any environmental regulations would be impossible to enforce.
“It’s happening in an area where there are no laws or even rules on safety standards. This is just the beginning of the disaster. We’ve learned from Kachin State that 300 legal or illegal mines happening with investors from China or Chinese-speaking investors. On our river headwaters, there are just a few. But there will be more and more coming if there is no action from governments. The costs are being paid by our rivers, our forests, our lands, and our futures.”
