Thai rivers threatened by Myanmar mines linked to China: ‘don’t want to eat the fish’

Tests by a Thai government agency have found levels of arsenic nearly five times international drinking water standards in the Kok River

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A giant Buddha statue in northern Thailand’s Chiang Rai province, with Thailand on the left and Myanmar in the centre, A new mine in northeast Myanmar is being blamed for rising pollution levels downstream in Thailand. Photo: AFP

Published: 10:49am, 18 Jun 2025Updated: 11:34am, 18 Jun 2025

A sprawling new mine is gouged into the lush rolling hills of northeast Myanmar, where civil war has weakened the government’s already feeble writ, and pollution levels are rising downstream in Thailand.

The complex is one of around a dozen extraction operations that have sprung up in Shan state since around 2022, in territory controlled by the United Wa State Army (UWSA), one of conflict-wracked Myanmar’s largest and best-equipped ethnic armed groups.

A few kilometres away across the border, locals and officials in Thailand believe toxic waste is washing downstream from the mines into the Kok River, which flows through the kingdom’s far north on its way to join the mighty Mekong.

Thai authorities say they have detected abnormally high arsenic levels in their waterways, which could pose a risk to aquatic life and people further up the food chain.

The price fisherman Sawat Kaewdam gets for his catch has fallen by almost half, because locals fear contamination. “They say: ‘There’s arsenic. I don’t want to eat that fish,’” he said.

Thai fisherman Sawat Kaewdam sorts his fishing net along the banks of the Mekong River in the Golden Triangle region in northern Thailand’s Chiang Rai province. Photo: AFP

Tests in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai by a government pollution agency found levels of the toxic element as high as 49 micrograms per litre of river water – nearly five times international drinking water standards.