Police are investigating why visitors were allowed near an open wastewater treatment pond, in what should have been a tightly-restricted area, at Charoen Pokphand Foods Plc (CPF) in Bang Na district, where five people died last Friday.

"In principle, the pond should be covered at all times, but when officials reached it, the lid was at the bottom of the pond," Mongkol Pruekwatana, director-general of the Industrial Works Department, told the press on Monday.

The pond at the CPF poultry-processing plant on Soi Bang Na-Trat 20 is three metres wide, four metres long and 2.5 metres deep. The lid in question weighs about 30 kilogrammes and has two handles.

Mr Mongkol told the press that the tragedy occurred when students were given a tour of the plant through a personal connection, and that the environmental official who showed them around had worked there for only six months.

Police would have to investigate exactly what happened, and why the lid was not in place, he said.

Prasert Tapaneeyangkun, president of the Environmental Engineering Association of Thailand, said the pond was in a restricted area that should be accessible only to staff members with relevant duties and manned by officials with emergency response training.

Pol Col Krissana Patanacharoen, deputy spokesman for the police, said on Monday that police were collecting evidence and questioning people, including a friend of the student who died in the pond. Their information was useful, he said without elaborating.

The five victims comprised a fifth-year veterinary student from Chulalongkorn University who visited the plant with a friend, the environmental official and three other CPF employees.

According to earlier reports, the 23-year-old student fell into the pond first and the environmental official and three other staff members rushed in afterwards to try to rescue her. They are thought to have died from inhalation of toxic gases inside the pond, which handles 5,500 cubic metres of wastewater per day.

The Industrial Works Department ordered CPF to close the wastewater treatment area for 30 days and improve its safety measures.

Source:
courtesy of BANGKOK POST

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