Heavy metal pollution and transboundary issues in ASEAN countries

The presence of heavy metals in waterways is a major threat to human health, and such metals cause stomach cancer and brain damage. There is a growing trend towards heavy metal pollution in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries due to inappropriate environmental management and the development of the region's chemical industry. In some border areas, transboundary heavy metal pollution significantly affects people's daily lives. The traditional ASEAN approach to solving heavy metal pollution has limitations due to various problems that affect the ASEAN region, such as unbalanced economic growth, a shortage of environmental technology, and a lack of regional law enforcement. As a result, more effective regional governance on heavy metal pollution and transboundary issues is urgently required. In this paper, network governance theory is used to study environmental problems. This paper recommends that voluntary governance is used to supplement traditional state-centric governance.