Page 50 - งานเชิดชูเกียรติผู้หญิงนักปกป้องสิทธิมนุษยชน วันสตรีสากล 2562

The network of women human rights defenders protect
community rights and maintain a healthy agricultural lifestyle. They are
organic farming who grow local varieties of rice and maintain community
forest areas by planting herbs in order to negate the impact from sugar
factory and biomass power plant projects.
The people of Khok Sa-at Sub-district, Kusuman District,
Sakon nakonn worked in sustainable agriculture cultivating organic rice
and replenishing the forest by planting herbs. A private company began
a project to build a sugar factory and a biomass power plant 2 kilometers
from their homes and only 300 meters away from the farming area.
In 2011, Ban Khok Sa-at community members opposed the sugar production
and biomass power plants out of fear that they would irreparably damage
the environment and its biodiversity. They feared that the fertile ecosystems
would be damaged and the public water that the villagers shared
would be polluted. They formed the “RakNamUn” group (Nam Oun
Basin Lover).
Throughout the years theRakNamUn group has continuously
monitored the construction of the plants, submitting a complaint to
the National Human Rights Commission and related agencies including
the Sakon Nakhon Province Industry, the UmChan Sub administrative
local organization, the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental
Policy and Planning under Section 11 of the National Health Act BE 2550
to conduct a health impact assessment study by the community in the
ecological culture area of the Unbasin community. The sugar factory
project would have a production capacity of 12,500 - 40,000 tons of
sugarcane per day, and the biomass power plant would generate 40 - 114 MW.

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