Prayut urges people not to panic over pollution, while academic finds govt solutions ineffective

By Nattapat Promkaew
The Nation

 

Photo credit: Royal Thai Government's website, Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha (Left)

 

In his weekly televised show on Friday (October 4), Prime Minister General 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,” he said, adding that 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 it first. The Cabinet approved a proposal last week to solve the pollution crisis at four levels, he said, adding “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.

 

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

 

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.

 

Related Story: Drivers of polluting vehicles will be arrested, warns Prayut

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30377086

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-10-05

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Stop burning the fields and forests !

Stop polluting the airwaves Friday evenings.

21 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

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.

 

Ok, so what are you doing to "promote" it Pinocchio?

 

There are so many electric vehicles available worldwide, but you choose to put ridiculous taxes and import restrictions on them.

 

A 2017 Tesla X (on One-2-Car) is between 6 - 7 million baht in Thailand.

 

If you were serious, you would be fostering a local electric vehicle industry as a priority, building a charging station network, reduces taxes to make them affordable, or even giving subsidies to encourage people to go electric.

 

But no, as usual, your words ring hollow and meaningless.

 

Dance Pinocchio...dance.

 

Bangkok needs a 200 Bahts daily tax on cars who drive in the inner city, some tax on non electric bikes too. But to do that they should provide first a proper transport system such as the Seoul underground. BTS/MRT are 80% short of meeting the current needs.

This, of course, is impossible to achieve with Thai men in command.

Edited October 5, 20196 yr by Momofarang

 

 

 

Edited October 5, 20196 yr by Hayduke

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Edited October 5, 20196 yr by RichardColeman

Who's the busty babe? Maybe just a prop for the photo op?

I don't think more hot air is the solution for the hot air problem.

 

And why is he still allowed to have a TV program?

Yesterday I saw a water delivery guy stopping every 10m with huge black exhaust fumes, even more than the red trucks or tuk-tuks.

He was not arrested. What happened to yesterdays promise?

Also the songtheows are still on the road. I thought he wanted to arrest them?

6 minutes ago, Thailand said:

I don't think more hot air is the solution for the hot air problem.

 

And why is he still allowed to have a TV program?

Is he still doing the Friday night thing? I seem to recall an announcement that that ended when he became the "elected" PM.

The man..

So many easy solutions to reduce the problem,

but as usual no one wants to take the lead and bring in hard measures,

just continual band aid solution that is ineffective and lacks the balls to really address the issue.

lotsa old trucks, busses, old songtaew & pickups spewing

out sot, they will be easy to catch and fine if there is a will

I got a DJI Drone they can rent cheap if they want to use it to drop water on the city.

Government needs to take a big pay cut if pollution is to be tackled. The idiots have taxed alternatives to diesels so thats a nono.

Fact is its the burning of fields and forest land thats the main problem here so the morons that are either poor or greedy, lazy and stupid can be just that. I watch people daily burn bamboo to promote new grow which is a myth, burn forest land in the hopes of mushrooms, chop down actually the last remaining trees to make charcoal and these are all people with jobs, cars and such. I wonder how is the baht so strong when people are doing this because i thought most people were poor to behave like this but its not true at all.

Change the mentality of thais, stop pretending that foraging for food and stupid behaviour like this is the thai way. Its stupid and embarassing to behave like this in the 21st century. These people can farm all this stuff themselves with little to no space and no cost and have plentiful supplies year round. Then these idiots can leave the forests alone. 

I see the problem being thai mentality but it wont change because if morons can be ignorant uneducated morons, governments can do as they wish...

No ones panicking they are just <deleted> off nothing is done. Only ones that may panic is our lying Tourist department as they see this as another turn off for tourists.

Great that we shouldn’t worry about it.

You can gas your turkey for free again this December ????

Make Thailand the " Hub of electric cars " , mass produced in Thailand , they will be sold all over Asia ... Wake up , government , the times are changing ...

6 hours ago, neeray said:

Who's the busty babe? Maybe just a prop for the photo op?

You have to have something nice to look at when he is spouting.

11 minutes ago, nobodysfriend said:

Make Thailand the " Hub of electric cars " , mass produced in Thailand , they will be sold all over Asia ... Wake up , government , the times are changing ...

 

China has that mantle.

 

Electric bikes are everywhere in China, yet Thailand seems reluctant to allow them in without the usual vehicle import duties.

 

Pinocchio's words are just that. He has no vision or plan to embrace electric vehicles.

7 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Prayut urges people not to panic over pollution, while academic finds govt solutions ineffective

Let's be honest:

while academic finds Prayut ineffective

This is really an easy problem to fix. You enforce the current laws you have.

 

But to do that, you need a competent police force and courts that uphold the law and drop the hammer on violators.

 

Never gonna happen.

Start charging tax to drive in to BKK.  Not too hard to implement and would not cost a fortune to install.  Go have a chat with London Council instead of these swan songs to investigate opening hours of pubs!

7 hours ago, neeray said:

Who's the busty babe? Maybe just a prop for the photo op?

You are spot on. Looks very much like Mrs. Narumon Pinyosinwat a member of the Phalang Pracharat Party who is the official government spokesperson. Just having a pretend deep and meaningful conversation with her boss.

Remember a week or so ago she accidentally dropped him right in it when she scattered around photos of him eating out of a foam bowl on his private plane.

https://www.thaipbsworld.com/cabinet-to-name-its-spokesperson-and-deputy-today/

 

               "Hey you! Yes you farang! I'm watching you TVF guys!" 

 

Edited October 5, 20196 yr by PatOngo

7 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

.

Please ! You are overdoing the Fertilizer.

8 hours ago, rooster59 said:

In his weekly televised show on Friday (October 4), Prime Minister General 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.

Stop playing with these word games and look for the culprits in other countries, in Thailand there is no environmental education and for this you see at all angles harmful fires for health!
Everything is burned, plastic, car tires, paper and even dead animals!
All this happens here in front of us!
It makes no sense to close your eyes to reality, begin to implement existing laws and ensure that police officers enforce them!
In the land of smiles you no longer see the smile because of the masks that people use as "protection"!

8 hours ago, rooster59 said:

smog from other countries,

Business as usual.... ????????????????