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At Klity village in Kanchanaburi, many Thai-Karen children are born with mental and physical disabilities, and suffer from a myriad of illnesses.
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17-year-old Jow Ti Pai grew up with an extraordinary high level of lead in his blood.
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Though dangerously polluted, the Klity stream is still the lifeblood of the ethnic Karen community.


DEADLY POISON
Despite a legal victory, the ethnic Karen villagers at Klity still suffer from lead poisoning and their stream is still dangerously polluted

It was a chilly, rainy night on the first day of Songkran in the Lower Klity village in Kanchanaburi province, but a number of Thai-Karen villagers, in long white traditional dress, enthusiastically gathered at the small wooden temple.


With the soothing and melodious sound of traditional Karen songs playing, the villagers lined up and started dancing, parading the new chofa, the apex of the temple gable, of the newly built ordination hall, surrounded by the flowing waters of the Klity stream.


Like the other forest dwellers laughing and dancing with joy, 17-year-old Jow Ti Pai seemed to be more delighted and excited than usual. On this auspicious occasion, he greeted visitors from Bangkok and wai-ed everyone he met on the way to the hall. On other days, however, he is chained up in his house.


Born in 1990, Jow Ti Pai has had such severe behavioural and learning problems that he had to drop out of school. He once jumped out of the house and broke his legs, so his mother tethered him with chains to keep him safe.


Given water and fish from the Klity stream since he was born, Jow Ti Pai has one of the most severe cases of lead poisoning in the village. He grew up with extraordinary high levels of lead in his blood, and his development was rather slow _ but not much different from other children in the Klity community.

The once-healthy Klity stream was polluted when a lead separation plant, run by the Lead Concentrate Thailand Co., went into operation 30km upstream from the village in 1967, and later began to discharge toxic chemicals into the stream.

During that period, people observed various changes in the stream: The black, malodourous liquid waste, and the huge amounts of dead fish, crabs and shrimp. Hundreds of cattle also died inexplicably. But the villagers had no doubts about the cause.


Apart from the environmental damage, lead poisoning has also been a serious health problem, causing great harm to the Klity villagers.


A number of villagers became ill with various symptoms and many died; deaths believed to have been caused by lead poisoning. Many children have been exposed to lead, and they have suffered from a high incidence of physical and mental handicaps and developmental difficulties. Most of these children are pale and weak, and have frequent headaches, stomach aches and suffer from bouts of nausea.


Jow Ti Pai's brother, six-year-old Jow Sor Wor is another one of the children with high levels of lead in his blood. Like his brother, the small, cheerful boy _ who looks younger than his age _ always greets visitors with a smile, and laughs and plays like an ordinary child. However, no one seems to be able to effectively communicate with him. As he runs around with weak muscles, it is also difficult for him to maintain a steady posture.


The villagers' suffering was made public nine years ago, and the lead extraction plant was ordered to close. However, the problems remain.


The stream has not yet been cleaned of toxic residue, and the villagers still suffer from lead poisoning, said Surapong Kongchantuk, director of the Karen Studies and Development Centre, who first alerted the media and government authorities to the lead contamination problem at Klity.

"Now the water is of an acceptable colour and odour, but it is still highly toxic," said Surapong.


"Lead poisoning is not a new issue, but the Ministry of Public Health has not concluded that villagers along the Klity stream are suffering from lead poisoning. The level of lead in villagers' blood has not yet decreased. They are still danger."


All of villagers have blood lead levels five times higher than the 4.9 microgrammes per decilitre of the average Thai adult. According to the Ministry of Public Health, the level of lead in the blood of an adult who works in a lead-related industry should not exceed 40 microgrammes per decilitre, while that among children should not exceed 25 microgrammes per decilitre.


The World Health Organization and the US Centres for Disease Control both say blood levels above 10 micrograms of lead per decilitre of blood put children at risk of cognitive damage, but most experts around the world agree that there is no safe level of exposure.


To compound the problem, the Klity villagers have never received proper treatment, said villager Kamtorn Srisuwanmala. Although health officials occasionally offer medical check-ups and blood tests, all the villagers receive is a piece of paper reporting their symptoms and the amount of lead in their blood.


"When I had a headache, I always came home with paracetamol. When I had a stomach ache, I was diagnosed as having a stomach ulcer. My illness was never diagnosed as lead poisoning," said Kamtorn. "We know that the level of lead in our blood is high, but not higher than what doctors think. In the doctor's opinions, we are just ordinary patients, we are not suffering from lead poisoning."


But Surapong argues that there is no safe level of lead in the blood, as the effects of lead poisoning depend on the immunity level of each person.


"All of the villagers need immediate access to treatment. Doctors should pay more attention to each person's specific symptoms. Villagers don't want to know the amount of lead in their blood, they want to receive treatment and want to be treated. They want to continue living their lives happily. Many villagers have tried to protect and adjust themselves to the damaged environment. But they still need their lives back," he said.


For the past 20 years, high levels of lead in the stream have destroyed the community's major supply of food and the assets of more than 300 villagers. Most of the villagers incurred debts when the authorities encouraged them not to eat fish or drink water from the stream. They now have to buy fresh meat, fish and vegetables from other communities.


Poo, a 35-year-old mother of five who has lived in the village for 30 years, knows that the stream is polluted, but she carries on fishing.


"I have no choice. I don't have much money to buy food for my children. So I still have to feed my children fish from the toxic water," she said.


And although the authorities have built a water pipeline across the mountain, supplying clean water to every house, problems still remain, said Jeerawan Bontowtook, assistant researcher at the Social Research Institute, Chulalongkorn University, who did research on the Klity community in 2003.


Most villagers are subsistence farmers and they depend on water from the stream, she explained. People cannot avoid using water from the stream since they have to leave home for months at a time to take care of their fields. If there are food and water shortages, they have no other choice but to fish and drink water from the stream.


"The pipes may reach to several houses in the village, but not to the fields far from the houses. It's impossible for them [the villagers] to carry enough water with them," she said.


The difficulties continue. The Department of Pollution Control promised to build six dykes to help retain contaminated sediment, but only two were built, and these have since been destroyed. Tonnes of the sediment are also piled up along the course of the stream, said Kamtorn.


The Department of Mineral Resources also refuses to clean the stream, and has suggested that villagers wait for the environment to cleanse itself. Even worse, the authorities suggested they leave their village and settle elsewhere. "And to this day I don't know where that somewhere else is," said Kamtorn.


"If we have to wait until the stream cleans itself, we don't really know how many years we will have to wait. Ten or 20 years, I wonder? And what are we are going to eat during that time? If we have to move out of our homes, we choose to remain here, along this 19km stretch of the stream," he affirmed.


Kamtorn is one of eight villagers who sought medical treatment from a Bangkok specialist four years ago.


After treatment for lead poisoning during the first year, they gradually recovered. Since the doctor confirmed that they were suffering from lead poisoning, the eight villagers successfully sued the mining company for compensation. After a three-year trial, the court awarded them four million baht last year, although the original claim was for 119 million baht.


Now, with the case in the Appeal Court, the villagers do not know how long they will have to wait to receive compensation.


The initial legal victory, however, has encouraged other villagers to fight for their rights. More than 120 villagers will file a similar lawsuit against the company this year.


"We hope for victory. We wish we could have clean and pure water as before. We need money to pay our medical bills but what we need more is our livelihoods back," said Kamtorn.


In the bright, sunny morning of the second day of Songkran, the villagers gently spooned rice into the bowls of newly ordained monks and novices.


As he has done in previous years, Kamtorn prayed to the holy spirits for good health and a clean stream.


On the other side of the village, Jow Ti Pai was having fun, climbing a tree and jumping into the stream with other children attempting to alleviate the heat of the hottest month of the year. They were smiling and laughing, seemingly unaware that the clear, chilly water still contains a huge amount of lead.


Jow Ti Pai surfaced and gave the visitors a smile and another wai.


INFO FORDonations

- Contact person: Surapong Kongchantuk, director, Karen Studies and Development Centre

- Bank info: savings bank account name: Fund for Lead Poisoning Victims at Klity (in Thai: Kong Toon Chuay Leur Pu Prasop Pai Jak Pit Sarn Takua Chao Baan Klity); savings account no: 156-1-07576-0; Krungthai Bank's Mahanak Branch

- Telephone: 08-1642-4006

- Web site: [url]www.karencenter.com[/url]

- Email:

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