ACADEMICS have criticised the junta’s order to allow the construction of polluting factories in restricted areas, regardless of city-planning codes, arguing the move will see the expansion of environmentally harmful industries and adversely affect public health and livelihoods.

On January 20, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) issued order 4/2559 under Article 44 of the interim constitution to exempt from city planning laws the construction of power plants, gas plants, water-treatment facilities, garbage incinerators, landfills and recycling plants. The order sparked concern about the uncontrolled expansion of such facilities in previously restricted areas.

Renu Vejaratpimol, a lecturer with the Faculty of Science at Silpakorn University, said the order violated city planning principles and put public health and food security at risk. “We should stop teaching city planning in all |universities and abolish the city planning department all together because the order makes this knowledge unnecessary,” Renu said sarcastically.

“The total [rejection] of the city plan is very dangerous. Allowing the construction of these polluting industries will definitely devastate the environment and take a heavy price on people’s health and our agriculture.”

She said city plans designated pollution-free zones reserved for particular forms of land use, such as farms and residences, but the order damaged the principles of the plans. City-planning academics should protect their profession, she added.

Decharut Sukkumnoed, a professor at Kasetsart University’s Faculty of Economics, expressed a worry about the lack of a consultation process before the initiation of projects that could have an |environmental impact.

“I am strongly opposed to this order because it allows uncontrolled development of polluting industries. Even though the government said they still |have |to pass environmental impact assessments [EIAs], some of these industries do not require an EIA study anymore,” Decharut said. “Therefore, without a city plan to regulate them, these kinds of industry are totally free to build literally anywhere.”

Last September, the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry issued an EIA exemption for some power plants that produced more than 10 megawatts.

Decharut also worried that the order would still be in effect even after a new government is elected, adding that many orders from the era of Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat in the 1960s are still operational today.

On the government side, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha earlier said the order was meant to facilitate industrial development in some areas.

“The city plan divides the zone into specific activities – and in some areas industrial development is not allowed. But if we do not build industry there, there will be no place for it. Nevertheless, they still have to pass the EIA consideration,” Prayut said.

Interior Minister Anupong Paochinda said government had to bypass city-planning laws for facilities related to garbage management because of the national agenda to manage waste at its origin.

“It should not be transported to other places to be dealt with. We also want to turn waste into energy, so we have to exempt the waste and energy facilities from the city-|planning law,” he said.