access to environmental information in thailand
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L/O/G/O
Strengthening the Right to Information to Improve Public Health and Environmental Quality: STRIPE
THAILAND Findings on Access to
Environmental Information
Strengthening the Right to Information to Improve Public Health and Environmental Quality: STRIPE
THAILAND Findings on Access to
Environmental Information
Regional Meeting: April 29 – May 1, 2013 Jakarta, Indonesia
Somrudee Nicro, Ph.D.
ContentsContents
Access to Water Pollution Info 4
Introduction to Map Ta Phut1
Assessment of the Official Information Act (OIA) 1997
2
Access to Air Pollution Info 3
http://www.beachthailand.com/thailand-maps/
http://www.pattayadailynews.com/en/2009/09/30/76-new-maptaphut-industrial-projects-halted-by-court-injunction/
Map Ta Phut MunicipalityRayong Province, Thailand
Case Study
Map Ta PhutMap Ta Phut
http://www..mtp.rmutt.ac.th/?page_id=62
33 communitiesPopulation: 45,646 people (2008)Area: 144.575 km2
Map Ta Phut Complex: Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate Hemaraj Eastern Industrial Estate Padaeng Industrial Estate Asia Industrial Estate IRL Industrial Estate Map Ta Phut Industrial Port
Environmental Impacts
Air Pollution
Source: Eastern People Network
Coastal Erosion
Water Pollution
Source: Eastern People Network
SoilSoil Soil
Health impactsHealth impactsHealth Impacts
Source: Eastern People Network
Air pollution during 1996-97 caused Maptaput Panpittayakarn School to move to a new location
Assessment of the Official Information Act (1997)
Constraints / ProblemsConstraints / Problems
Official Information Act (OIA)
Officials avoid exercising their judgment whether or not to disclose information
No instruments or rules put in place for officials to exercise judgment and thereby ensure safety for the official courageous enough to disclose the information.
Section 9(8) of the OIA
Govt. agencies often do not understand whether the information in their possession are under the scope of Section 9(8).
Assessment of the OIA
Constraints / ProblemsConstraints / ProblemsRegarding Organizational StructureOOIC is under the PM Office, not independent.Large composition of the Official Information BoardOOIC is centralized.
Regarding the public
Don’t understand the lawEmpathy in exercising their rights
Regarding the Government Govt. has no enforcement measures.Govt’s fear of more people wanting to exercise their rights
Implementation / Compliance
Assessment of the OIA
RecommendationsRecommendations
Short-term Actions• Govt. needs to set clear policy
on enforcement of the OIA.• Provincial authorities should have
the duty to disseminate and publicize the Act in their provinces.
• Govt. agencies should reconsider fees for photocopying document
and verification of the photocopied document.
Long-term Actions• Govt. must instruct every govt.
agency to publicize the Act seriously and continuously.
• Change officials' attitude to be service-minded
• Revise the OIC's structure and improve its competency
• Develop standards and good information management system for
govt. agencies• A Personal Information Act with clear
purposes and procedures should be developed.
Assessment of the OIA
AIR QUALITY INFOAIR QUALITY INFOAccess to
Access to InformationAccess to Information
Findings
Oral request can’t be used as an evidence to lodge an appeal.
Requestors need to know first the scope of duties and authority of govt. agency.
Having requestors photocopy document by themselves implies that the govt. agencies denying the request.
Govt. agencies have a concern about the requester’s objectives for fear that it may violate public right under Article 56 and 57 of the 2007 Constitution.
Requestors do not submit appeal as they do not know the requesting process.
Assessment of Air quality pollution control
Access to InformationAccess to Information
Objectives for the request may not be locally driven
Insufficient knowledge about the requested information
Incurred expenses
Different interpretations of agencies in enforcing Section 9(8)
Constraints / Problems
Assessment of Air quality pollution control
RecommendationsRecommendations
Assessment of Air quality pollution control
Allocate a budget for each govt. agency to facilitate public access to information
Develop a public satisfaction indicators/index to measure people’s satisfaction
Penalize officials who neglect the request
Agencies, e.g. ONEP, need to reconsider their fees currently required for document photocopying and verification.
(1/2)
RecommendationsRecommendations
Assessment of Air quality pollution control
Require project proponents to also submit info to ONEP in digital forms
Acknowledge digital requests and info as official.
All decisions made by Official Information Commission (OIC) should be categorized and disseminated on OOIC’s website.
In view of AEC, OOIC should propose the improvement of the law on access to information by aliens
(2/2)
Access to Water Quality Info
Access to InformationAccess to Information
Time taken to obtain the information exceeds that prescribed by the law.Water monitoring covers not all parameters of water qualitySuspicion among community members whether the discharged water sample was replaced or modifiedThe public or local stakeholders have no access to the info on monitoring results.Requester received average water quality info, not the info of the specific dates they requested.When water quality was found to be poorer than standard, no actions were taken against the polluters (facilities or communities) or responsible agencies .
Assessment of Water quality pollution control
Findings
Access to InformationAccess to Information
Constraints / Problems
Several laws related to water quality are difficult to understand
Officials collect water samples during office hours. But facilities discharge pollutants during the nights or heavy rainfalls.
Information received from govt. agency does not correspond with the requests, thus wasting time on both sides.
Officials who take more than 15 days (as required by law) to respond to a request faces no penalty.
Official response is written by legal officials. Some of them may not understand the reasons for denying the request. Also shortage of legal officials.
Assessment of Water quality pollution control
RecommendationsRecommendations
Recommendations (cont.)
Integrate all laws on water quality into a legal code.
Restructure the role and authority of agency responsible for water quality monitoring so that it can impose immediate punitive measures (~US EPA)
Provide communities trainings on laws pertaining to public rights to get access to each type of information
Require every govt. agency to disclose and disseminate information on its website, and monitored by OOIC
Assessment of Water quality pollution control
RecommendationsRecommendations
Recommendations
OOIC should compile decisions made by the Information Disclosure Tribunals which demands govt. agencies to disclose information on water quality, and categorize and disseminate them to the public.
OOIC should compile cases that the Tribunals decided not to have the requested info disclosed and submit them to OIC for review and setting guidelines or standard.
Each agency should develop an info system, including index, and make it easily accessible to the public so community members know where to go for the info they seek.
Assessment of Water quality pollution control
L/O/G/O
Thank You!Thank You!
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