Air Pollution

Northern Thailand suffers whilst officials play the blame game

Published

6 months ago

May 7, 2019

The Thaiger

Excerpts from an article at ttrweekly.com

Inflicting immeasurable damage to the health of residents and incalculable losses on the economy and tourism, the northern smog clings to the hilly landscape making a mockery of government assurances that it has the crisis under control.

Provincial and district officials appear to be preoccupied with the task of deciding a date when residents can resume the burning of household rubbish in their gardens. The dates have changed at least three times in the last week when common sense would have dictated the province should stop any outside burning, of anything.

“Chiang Rai stands out on the Thai map for all the wrong reasons. It’s a hot spot for forest fires and agricultural arson raising the air quality index into the red alert zone for almost three months.”

Between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, the two cities have made their way into the top ten most polluted places on earth many times in the past three months, a problem that is completely avoidable.

“What a tragic downfall from being pitched just a few months ago as an up-coming leisure destination destined to attract high spend incentive groups and leisure travellers keen to explore a cultural experience that is fast disappearing in urban cities around Thailand. The crystal ceiling has caved in on that narrative,,” says Don Ross in the ttryweekly.com article.

The article notes that properties will lose their value, hotels will have to contend with deep red zones in the balance sheets while public health costs will skyrocket. Chiang Rai located at the far north of the map is a cul-de-sac of dense smog with visibility down to 3 km cloaking the province’s dramatic landscapes of forested hills.

In one sweep the tourism industry of six northern provinces is in jeopardy.

Following in the wake of thousands of hot spots and fires deliberately started by agricultural arsonists the blame game plays out. In Laos, the Vientiane Times last week blamed the increase in smog pollution in the Lao capital on neighbouring Thailand and Myanmar. So for all the wrong reasons North Thailand stands out as a smoggy hot spot and for that and nothing else the advisory for would-be travellers is quite simple.

“Don’t waste your holiday savings visiting North Thailand until you see a consistent line up of green columns on the AQI chart day-after-day. Capture the 30-day screenshots of the Air Visual AQI map and you will quickly identify where the blue dots are located that indicate very healthy spots. They are all shining bright in the far south at beach resorts on the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman coast.”

ORIGINAL STORY: ttrweekly.com

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Related Topics:haze pollution smog tourism

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Air Pollution

Less monitoring, more enforcement – Prawit warns northern officials

Published

2 weeks ago

October 11, 2019

The Thaiger & The Nation

Less monitoring, more enforcement – Prawit warns northern officials | The Thaiger

PHOTO: The Thaiger

Thai Deputy PM Prawit Wongsuwan and Natural Resources and Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa were in Chiang Mai yesterday to give provincial governors and state agency officials a ‘heads up’ in preparation for another looming season of forest fires and haze.

The North suffers perennial choking smog from approximately February to April, and Prawit passed on a message from PM Prayut Chan-o-cha who, he said, was fretting over the impact on people’s health.

He said the Environment Ministry would take the lead in coordinating with neighbouring countries and related local authorities to monitor the fire problem both in and outside Thailand.

The fires are lit in northern Thailand, and over the border in Myanmar, as burn-offs to prepare for the next year’s crops. Last year’s choking smoke haze was headline news for months.

SOURCE: The Nation

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Air Pollution

Thai PM says Cabinet is adding new pollution controls, while academic finds solutions ineffective

Published

2 weeks ago

October 5, 2019

The Thaiger & The Nation

Thai PM says Cabinet is adding new pollution controls, while academic finds solutions ineffective | The Thaiger

In his weekly televised show yesterday, PM Prayut Chan-o-cha said his government has always been concerned about air pollution, especially PM2.5 or microscopic dust particles, which he put down to smog from other countries, traffic jams, burning of farming waste, factory emission and dust from construction sites.

“PM2.5 is dangerous, especially for children, babies, pregnant women and elders, whose immunity is too fragile to tackle the microscopic dust.”

“People should be particularly careful during December as there are no winds or rain to blow away the dust.”

He also urged people not to panic, saying it is necessary to understand all the issues first. He explained that the Cabinet approved a proposal last week to tackle the pollution crisis at four levels.

“We have explained them to all provinces and have asked for coordinated cooperation”.

The premier had previously warned that the authorities would arrest polluting car owners. Meanwhile, an academic was pessimistic about the effectiveness of the measures implemented by the government.

Sumet Ongkittikul, research director at Thailand Development Research Institute told The Nation… “Removing polluting cars from Bangkok streets will not help much as long as diesel-powered vehicles continue plying the streets of the capital.”

Instead, he said, the government should follow China’s way of tackling air pollution in Beijing, where it promoted the use of electric motorbikes and cut down on the number of cars.

SOURCE: The Nation

PHOTO: Prayut Chan-o-cha speaking in his weekly TV appearance – Royal Thai Government

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Air Pollution

Bangkok’s blue skies return, but light smog lingers

Published

3 weeks ago

October 2, 2019

The Thaiger

PHOTO: Prae Sakaowan

The air pollution situation around Bangkok has vastly improved in the past 24 hours, returning to more reasonable readings around the city. Certainly most of the city is now reading under 100 and in the ‘moderate’ range of the air pollution scale, according to airvisual.com

Bangkok’s Pollution Control Department reported at 9am today that levels of particulate matter 2.5 microns and less in diameter (PM2.5) were measured at 19-52 per cubic metre of air in parts of the inner city. Some of the manufacturing hubs immediately outside Bangkok were getting higher readings.

Whilst the winds remain light (below) around the capital the threat of the poor air quality returning is ever-present. On Monday PM Prayut Chan-o-cha called on the private and public sector to work together to solve Bangkok’s long-term air quality challenges.