By Pratch Rujivanarom

As part of yesterday’s World Environment Day, the UN Environment Program Agency says they’re working with local partners in Thailand to find new ways to mitigate dangerous emissions. One idea put forward yesterday was the development of electric public transport in Bangkok’s klongs (canals) that could help solve two of the city’s biggest problems – traffic congestion and air pollution.

UNEP says a team was now working with the Climate and Clean Air Coalition as well as the Thai Pollution Control Department on a project to assess the impact canal-based public transport can have on air pollution in the city.

Bert Fabian, program officer in the Air Quality and Mobility Unit, says the international agency and its Thai partners are identifying the types and amount of pollutants being emitted from boats plying the klongs in Bangkok.

Fabian says Bangkok suffers annual bouts of severe air pollution and this previously unmeasured source may be a significant contributing factor.

“We want to improve the air we breathe but we can’t do this without the best possible data.”

He ventured that once the operators replace their ageing, polluting diesel boats with electric vessels, the city’s network of klongs would potentially offer a clean alternative and have a marked impact on both traffic congestion and air pollution in Bangkok.

Sonthi Kotchawat, a prominent environmental health expert, also said that discarding all diesel fuels used around the city would be key to tackling Bangkok’s larger air-pollution problems.

Thailand’s transport sector is the largest source of air pollution in Bangkok and a recent study found that vehicle exhaust fumes contribute up to 52 per cent of the pollution.

He added that diesel engine exhaust is by far the worst pollutant as the combustion of diesel releases the highest amount of harmful PM2.5, very fine particulate matter, and other hazardous substances. He also warned that the ultra fine, which is even smaller and more harmful than PM2.5, is generated by diesel combustion as well, which further adds to the health hazard of toxic air pollution.

SOURCE: The Nation

by Pratch Rujivanarom

Environment campaigners are urging the government to approve a clean-air act to solve the country’s chronic smog problem and honour citizens’ right to breathe clean air.

Dr Wirun Limsawart, a policy analyst at the Society and Health Institute and member of the Clean Air Network Thailand, said at a press conference there was no more time for debate over the fact of the seasonal smog problem.

“Everyone must work together, addressing all aspects of what has become a serious threat to public health and social justice. Everyone should get involved in devising sustainable solutions.”

The Clean Air Network released a “Clean Air White Paper” as a handbook for use by the general public containing information about PM2.5 particulate matter and related issues.

Wirun said the prolonged and severe PM2.5 pollution afflicting many parts of Thailand during the current dry season, especially Metropolitan Bangkok and the North, had left citizens suffering serious but preventable health impacts.

“The seasonal PM2.5 smog is a very significant problem, not only harming people’s health and wellbeing, but along with the authorities’ ineffectiveness in preventing and controlling the smog, worsening injustice in our society,” he said.

He said the problem became so dire this year partly because of the authorities’ failure to cope, so he called on the government to set out sustainable measures such as enacting a Clean Air Act and establishing a central environmental-protection agency.

“The primary reasons the authorities’ efforts are unsuccessful are the lack of a holistic approach in taking such measures, unclear and inefficient environmental-law enforcement, and the authorities’ bias by which economic development is given higher priority than environmental protection,” Wirun said.

“Unless we solve these structural issues, establish official smog-mitigation measures, improve law enforcement and come out with a Clean Air Act to use as a legal tool to safeguard the right to live in a healthy environment, we will fail to protect public health and Thailand will soon become a sickly society.”

Wirun said poor public understanding of PM2.5 was another major issue that needed to be tackled.

“The nature of the smog problem, the characteristics and health threats of PM2.5, air-quality measurements, the air-quality index and the pollution warning system can be quite confusing.”

SOURCE: The Nation

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