Salted Lands

Commissioned by Roots2Justice

In the rural heart of northeastern Thailand, farmers once harvested rice from fertile fields and drew fresh water from rivers and ponds that had nourished generations. Today, much of that land lies barren, poisoned by salt. The air is thick with the sharp taste of brine. What once sustained life now stains it white.

Since 2016, a potash mining operation backed by one of Thailand’s largest energy conglomerate has polluted the land, water, and air across multiple villages in Dan Khun Thot District. Saline wastewater from underground excavation was discharged into ponds, fields, and farmlands, contaminating entire ecosystems and forcing communities into a fight for their right to exist on their own land.

The damage is not distant, it’s on the doorstep. It spreads quietly, almost invisibly, until the land under your feet begins to die. What was once green turns brittle and grey. Wild plants and crops wither in the soil. Even the grass won’t grow. The salt creeps in slowly, killing everything in its path.

Cattle, once healthy and strong, have become thin and weak. Many have died. Farmers can no longer let them roam; the water and the grass that once fed them have turned toxic.

You walk outside and see it: the cracked earth, the salt-encrusted fields, the empty ponds where fish once swam. Life pulled back, retreated. The land hasn’t just been poisoned and the poison keeps spreading.

But the community has not remained silent. Villagers, farmers, and elders, many of whom have lived here for generations, have come together to form the Khon Rak Baan Koet Dan Khun Thot group. They are calling on the company to stop, to take responsibility, and to repair what has been broken. They’re not just defending their land, they’re defending a way of life and their future.