Public Participation in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the Thailand-Malaysia Gas Separation Plant Project

Abstract

This article aims to study the level of the public participation in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study of the Thailand-Malaysian gas seperation plant project; Chana district, Songkhla province. The study was found that the level of public participation is lower than the developed countries such as United State of America and Canada due to few limitations. Particularly, the project is a new occurrence in Thailand that has carried out the public participation system into the EIA study. Consequently, there were inadequate experience to encourage the public participation and to manage the conflicts between the opponent groups and the project owner. Therefore, the method of the solving problem is that public should participate at the beginning stage; to select the proper area for the project and proceed to the final stage; to take parts in the decision making process for decision of construction. Nevertheless, the latter time, government tried to hold the public hearing, however, is far from success. Consequently, there were many violent situations. In particularly, on December, 20, 2003, there was confrontation and clashed between policemen and opponents group. Furthermore, government should clearly set the public participation process in EIA study and to clearly state that who is the public such as, the affected people, interesting people, academic people, and NGO to participate into the EIA study.