The Civil Court division that handles environmental cases has issued an injunction to suspend an industrial-waste-treatment company from dumping toxic waste at its facility in Ratchaburi province.
The instruction will remain valid until the court rules in a case involving communities who claim to have been affected by the waste, versus the company for polluting water resources.
The injunction was issued on Tuesday at the behest of a group of about 20 villagers in tambon Nam Phu.
They presented to the court a video showing employees of Wax Garbage Recycle Centre Co (Waxga) dumping the chemical waste at the company's factory area on Feb 26, said an informed source.
Court officials pasted a copy of the injunction on one of the company's walls the following day ordering it to suspend toxic-waste treatment until further notice, said the source.
The court order included reasons explaining why it had to suspend the company's refuse-cleaning activities, the source said.
It states the court was convinced by sufficient evidence that if the company were allowed to continue its activities, further damage would likely be done to the affected parties -- to such an extent it would be unable to compensate them or make them better at a later date.
The villagers are still fighting in court for financial compensation from Waxga after the Pollution Control Department (PCD) found last year in its probe the company was polluting groundwater and water in a creek near its waste-treatment facility, the source said.
The villagers demanded the company restore the damaged environment to the state it was in before the company began running its waste-treatment activities, said the source.
Last March, Suwan Nanthosarut, deputy director of the PCD, revealed findings from a marathon investigation into allegations that Waxga polluted the environment from 2001 to 2016.
It was found to have broken a 1992 Act on national environmental protection and promotion by dumping oil or chemicals into public water sources, Mr Suwan said at that time.
The department pressured the company into awarding damages to the state, he said.
Villagers who were affected can do the same.
In Chon Buri, villagers were checking 150 tonnes of hazardous waste.
