About

Background

Thailand Revival after Asian Economic Crisis

Thailand, after being hit badly by the South East Asian Economic Crisis of 1997 reinvented itself through the Heavy Investment Promotional Policy (starting 2000). Thailand has been doing phenomenally well in several sectors including in the Electronic, Automobile, Chemical industries, where there has been dramatic increase in quantity of exports.

Thailand Achievement

Thailand has the distinction of being the top HDD and components manufacturing base in the world.
Thailand is one of the largest automobile manufacturing hub in Asia, and is often dubbed the “Detroit of Asia Pacific”.
Thailand is now a major manufacturing haven and is a large exporter of industrial chemicals.

Down Side

While these industries (electronic, automobile & chemicals) have played a great role in generating income and providing employment for Thailand, they have also been responsible for handling huge amounts of hazardous chemicals & generating huge amounts of hazardous waste.

Need for SAFE-THAI

Presently, about 6 million tons of hazardous waste and chemical materials are moved across boundaries while over 28 million tons are moved internally within the country, both for industrial and agricultural applications.

This huge movement of hazardous material and waste is primarily a result the following three reasons:  first, the nature of industries that are thriving; second, the concentration of industries in the Central and Eastern Seaboard, areas which do not have the necessary hazardous waste treatment facility; third,   the  lack of sufficient capacity (currently only about 20% of waste generated) to treat hazardous waste.

Due to non availability of treatment facilities, companies are forced to practice improper methods of hazardous waste disposal and also are forced to transport them across the country to better treatment and disposal sites.

While the Thai government needs to build infrastructure to root out the problem, the SAFE THAI Project seeks to address the existing reality by ensuring a safe and sustainable transportation of the hazardous material/ waste.

Considering the fact that there are many SME involved in transportation and that they do not practice internationally-accepted best practices for risk mitigation, the amount of risk faced by the people involved in transportation of hazardous material, as well as the risk faced by the people living along the route to hazardous treatment facilities, are considerably high.