Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra last Sunday visited the Maptaput industrial estate in Rayong ahead of Tuesday’s cabinet meeting.
The prime minister observed an emergency evacuation drill at the Maptaput industrial estate in the eastern province of Rayong to see the progress of an emergency response plan at the surveillance and environmental control centre after a fire at the compound of the BST Elastomers Co. on May 5.
The company is responsible for paying compensation to families of the deceased and those injured in the accident. It has sent mobile medical units to nearby communities and set up a 10-million-baht fund to help affected people as ordered by the prime minister.
The prime minister observed a drill of a mock fire accident in an oil tank in a storehouse. About 200 firefighters and medical staff with 35 fire trucks managed to put out the fire and evacuated people in the simulation. The prime minister instructed the drill to be conducted periodically.
Yingluck also ordered a flood prevention plan including evacuation of local residents and machinery movement to be added in the emergency plan and advised inspections in industrial plants which may not adhere to acceptable safety standard. She underscored environmental concerns to see whether Rayong province may become an example of proper environmental management in an industrial estate.
After meeting with agencies concerned, Yingluck received a letter from representatives of the Eastern People Network, gathering at the Maptaput industrial Estate. Several factions of the group submitted petitions, calling for the government to tackle problems on air pollution, industrial waste and industrial impacts on local fisheries.
The prime minister told them that the government understood their problems and is urgently addressing pollution in Rayong, encompassing a large number of industrial plants. She instructed the governor and the industrial minister to oversee the issue and report to her.
Yingluck later travelled to the Royal Cliff Beach Resort in Pattaya to chair a workshop on driving policies to increase tourism income to 2 trillion baht within five years as well as another workshop to boost work efficiency of tourist police.
