Thick Smog Hangs Over Thailand's North And Northeast

[webfact]

HAZE

Thick smog hangs over North, Northeast

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Several provinces in the North and Northeast are still under thick smog with an increasing number of people suffering from eye irritation and respiratory problems.

Meanwhile, Chiang Rai has lost some 20 per cent of its tourists, and more and more people are seeking treatment for red eye.

In Chiang Mai, farmers living in tambon Mae Taeng have reported that bears, forced out of the wilderness by the smog, are hunting their animals. So far, these wild bears have killed 30 chickens and a dog, and farmers have set up guard to protect their stock.

Fur found tangled in barbed wire is pending verification by Chiang Mai University, senior district official Chaiyakan Suwan said. "If the animals are sun bears or honey bears the risk will become greater," he said, adding that the smog could also prompt tigers and other predators to hunt farm animals or come closer to the villages.

In Lampang's Mae Moh district, three kindergarteners have been hospitalised for respiratory problems and eye irritation.

Results from air qualitychecking stations under the Department of Pollution Control show that the density of particles and dust detected at three locations in Lampang - two in Mae Moh and one in Muang district - had exceeded safety limits.

The smog in the North is coming from wildfires as well as manmade fires in two districts in Chiang Rai as well as Mae Hong Son's Pai district in addition to neighbouring countries. The smog in the Northeast is caused by fires in Phu Kheo and Phu Lan Kha mountain ranges in Chaiyaphum province, where some 10,000rai of forestland has been set ablaze.

Chief of the Chiang Rai tourism office, Somkiat Chuentheerawong, has called on residents to stop setting fires because the province is losing tourists.

Meanwhile, fire trucks have been spraying water to reduce the effect of smog in residential areas, while cloudseeding operations are underway in nine provinces including Lamphun, Phrae and Phayao.

-- The Nation 2012-03-01

[JeremyBowskill]

Any chance of actually using the police force to impose fines on people setting fires? or does that get in the way of helmet fining??

[canopy]

How about a one patient, one farmer program? Bring a minivan of hospital patients suffering from this out to a various fields being burned. Explain to the farmer he is making these people sick and should stop this practice permanently. Right now it seems farmers have no idea they are why the country is choking in smog year after year making everyone sick. If laws aren't enforced to stop it then maybe this sort of education could help.

[EyesWideOpen]

One of the reasons I left Chiang Mai was the horrific smog, which was getting worse every year. There is something vaguely amusing about the fact that hill side farmers burn off the forest to raise a few million baht worthy of crops, and cause billions of baht of damage to the tourist industry, as well as harm the health of their fellow Thais living in Chiang Mai. I suggest the government pay some sort of subsidy to stop this burning, and impose massive fines for those that violate it. Interesting to see what the government does. Nothing would be my best guess.....

[villagefarang]

In our village everyone burns so you can’t really arrest everyone. It somehow wouldn’t be fair to fine only the ones you can catch in the act and let the others get away with it. I suppose you could resort to more draconian methods and punish an entire village if anyone burns. That might turn neighbor on neighbor as a means of enforcement.

Of course that is not the Thai way so I suspect the burning will continue for at least another generation. As family plots are sold off to corporations enforcement might get easier and they may have the financial wherewithal to do something other than burn.

[canopy]

I think the future is bleak at least for our lifetimes based on the sentiment of the Thai people who are indifferent and the government who does little year after year.

It's interesting that rather than eliminate the problem at its source since apparently a lot of the burning is totally illegal, the government dabbles with mitigating the side effects. Cloud seeding is one thing they trumpet, but when you meddle with the environment like that it makes me wonder if it's just robbing peter to pay paul. So while they may be able to reduce the smog in chiang mai somewhat, it then seems to go to horrific levels over in bone dry mae hong song. I see cloud seeding as a waste of money, probably harmful to the environment overall, and even in a best case scenario the air is still bad, just not as bad. Suggestion: cancel the cloud seeding and other such programs and use the money to have tractors come over to till land for free so farmers have a competitive alternative to lighting their fields ablaze.

[canopy]

In our village everyone burns so you can’t really arrest everyone. It somehow wouldn’t be fair to fine only the ones you can catch in the act and let the others get away with it.

My village too, but enforcement would work. Just like hunting in the national forests. If you want to be nice, first post a warning there is going to be 0 tolerance. Then you arrest a hunter and put him in jail. Next year people think twice about hunting there. Then you arrest another hunter. And before long the good people stop doing it and the criminals are in jail. Burning would be just so easy to enforce. Not only does smoke/fire send a perfect beacon to who is doing it at day/night respectively, but with today's technology satellite imagery can be used to detect every fire being set anywhere in the country instantly. But as I mentioned before, the will is not there. Right or wrong, burning is an accepted cultural practice seen as the most ideal way to deal with waste of all sorts. Getting people to the point that they could correlate that what they are doing puts people in the hospital because of their laziness would be "thinking too much".

[CBR250]

I am perplexed by the lack of action on air quality in the north. The economic costs for the vast majority (loss of tourists; health care costs for respiratory illness; lost productivity) must be a gazillion times greater than the small savings made by polluters. And it's not just the pyro farmers ruining air quality, but the execrably maintained diesels that pump out daily carcinogens adding to the mix. There seems no political interest, only noises of sympathy - the media reported PM Yingluck met Dept of Envt officials about the "northern haze" - but there are no reports on the substance or outcomes of the meeting. I strongly suspect no meaningful plans for action were developed. My plan of action is to leave CM for the next month or two until the rains clean the air - but not everyone can do this.

CBR250

[kerryk]

Anybody look at a fire map and see where the fires are coming from? Naw. Too high tech for the new Farang.

[Gweiloman]

Not being a farmer, why do the farmers burn? To prepare for the next planting? Does burning what's left add nutrients to the ground? What are the alternatives?

[Priceless]

Anybody look at a fire map and see where the fires are coming from? Naw. Too high tech for the new Farang.

I can't say I understand what what you're trying to say, but here's a map (from http://firefly.geog.umd.edu:8080/firemap/?x=99.30937499999999&y=18.009375000000005&z=7&g=g&v=1&r=5&i=er&l=ad,ct ):

/ Priceless

[kerryk]

So even if Thailand stops what about China. Laos, etc etc.........

[canopy]

Not being a farmer, why do the farmers burn? To prepare for the next planting? Does burning what's left add nutrients to the ground? What are the alternatives?

The slash and burn method of farming is like this in my observations. In preparation for the planting season that starts in late spring, the weeds and stalks from last year are first eradicated. They prepare for this by poisoning the fields and/or slashing any growth down so it becomes very dry. Then they burn the field. The advantage of this method is it is easy and cheap. The disadvantage is it depletes soil quality, resulting in more chemicals needed for farming the next year which reduces profit. The ash in the air with these poisons that go airborne (not to mention the untold destruction of the runoff into waterways) creates the smog that casts a brown haze limiting visibility, sometimes enough to blot out the sun. During the burning time that lasts several months of each year there may never be one day of clear skies. Millions of people in Thailand are told to stay inside with doors and windows closed and avoid all strenuous activity. Hundreds of thousands end up in the hospital. For me the symptoms are a sting in the eyes and a dry throat, others have it much worse.

There are several alternatives to burning. Tilling is one, but costs thousands of baht to rent a tractor. Weeds can also be removed by hand, something I used to do happily as a kid back in my country for minimum wage.

A common misconception is the practice of field burning is ancient. It isn't. Before the chemical era farming was organic and soil enrichment was very important. Even buffaloes were prized because each time they defecated working in the fields it was helping the crops and the farmers knew that. Organic farming became very efficient but the know-how is mostly gone and with the soil in such dire shape there is no going back.