NAN, Thailand: Dawn is bright, and Kanchanaporn Paeng-ud stands on the hilltop where her family cultivates tapioca. He then looked towards the wide valleys that extended to the neighboring country, Laos.
About 20 kilometers away, plumes of smoke billowing high into the sky could be seen on the horizon. For five months a year, the cloud-like smoke ridges dissolve into small particles, then are blown by the wind all the way to his hometown in Thailand.
The source of the smoke is the Hongsa Mine Mouth Power Plant Project, a coal-fired power plant that began operating in 2015 in Xayaboury Province, Laos.
Since then, people in the hills of Nan, a province in northeastern Thailand that borders Laos, have seen how strange things often happen in their villages, including health problems.
In Chalermprakiat District, local residents observed how their crops could not be harvested due to disease, and the land became increasingly infertile. They were even warned not to eat local fish and to be careful with the water they drank. Children, in particular, often contract respiratory illnesses.
Suspicions are getting thicker and thicker. Residents believe a polluting power plant on the other side of the border is to blame.
Chalermprakiat is a remote corner of Thailand, home to the Lua ethnic community who depend closely on crops – harvesting coffee, rice, corn, shrimp, crabs and fish.
Despite its simplicity, life in “our society is warm, loving and harmonious,” says Kanchanaporn.
