Safety measures questioned in 5 deaths in CPF wastewater pond (Updated)

26 มิถุนายน 2560

Police are investigating why visitors were allowed near an open wastewater treatment pond at a CPF factory where five people died on Friday. Authorities have temporarily shut down the Bang Na-Trat Road facility.

Police are investigating why visitors were allowed near an open wastewater treatment pond at a CPF factory where five people died on Friday. Authorities have temporarily shut down the Bang Na-Trat Road facility.

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Afternoon update

Safety measures questioned after CPF plant deaths

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.

Morning story

CPF staff members express shock and grief after student Panthika Tasuwan, who fell into a wastewater treatment pond, and four staffers who tried to rescue her died on Friday.

CPF plant closed after deaths

Post Reporters

The deaths of five people who fell into a wastewater treatment pond at a CPF factory on Friday has led authorities to temporarily shut down the Bang Na-Trat Road facility.

The closure comes as a team of Industry Ministry investigators, engineers and a fact-finding unit assembled by Charoen Pokphand Foods Plc seek to identify the cause of the deaths.

Officials have ordered the factory to "shut down its wastewater treatment facility for improvement," deputy permanent secretary for industry Nisakorn Jungjaroentham said yesterday.

More details of the case will be revealed today by the ministry's Industrial Works Department – the body in charge of overseeing factories – and the Environmental Engineering Association of Thailand following their initial probe into Friday's tragedy, she said.

They will clarify information about the deaths, legal issues and factory safety standards.

Police suspect the five victims inhaled a toxic gas. It is unclear if the CPF facility was following strict safety standards.

On Friday morning, two students were on a tour of the poultry feed-producing plant, when one – identified as Panthika Tasuwan, 23 – fell into the four-metre deep wastewater treatment pond, prompting company staff to rush to her aid, say police.

Ratchanok Saenthaweekun, 24, the plant's environmental officer who was leading the tour, was the first person to jump in to rescue Panthika, but they were both rendered unconscious.

Another three staffers then rushed to the treatment area to try to pull the two women out, but they too fell into the pond. The three staffers, who later died, were identified as Pornchai Boonban, 40, Charnchai Phanthunakhin, 42, and Chatree Seethankorn, age unknown.

Parisothat Punnabhum, CPF's senior executive vice-president for human resources, says he was stunned to learn of the accident as the tour had been guided by a company official.

The wastewater treatment facility is a "closed area", Mr Parisothat said.

CPF has set up its own team of investigators to determine how the tragedy occurred and whether the plant met safety standards.

Mr Parisothat said CPF plans to offer financial help to the victims' families.

Chulalongkorn University rector Bandit Uea-aphon also promised to offer help to the family of Panthika, a fifth-year student from the Faculty of Veterinary Science.

As for the four company employees, they are entitled to assistance under the Workmen Compensation Fund and the Social Security Fund, Labour Minister Sirichai Distakul said.