Haze in Northern Thailand may linger till end of April

[webfact]

Haze may linger till end of April



BANGKOK: -- The haze in Northern Thailand may last longer till end of April unless fire hotspots across the border are put under control, warned Dr Anond Snidvongs, executive director of the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency.

Warning by the expert came after remote sensing images released by the National Park, wildlife and Plant Conservation Department Wednesday detected clusters of hotspots scattered in Thailand’s northern and western regions including in Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

The area with concentration of hotspots are in the north and the east of Myanmar bordering Thai border from Mae Hong Son to Tak and Prachuap Khiri Khan provinces.

Other concentration of hotspots were detected in Laos bordering Thailand’s Chiang Rai province, while in Cambodia and Vietnam the hotspots were sparse and not a concern.

But the hotspot map could not exactly identify the fire locations due to limitation of the satellite imagery.

Dr Anond said the particulate measurement of PM10 in the North still exceeded the safety level by over 100 microgrammes per cubic metres, while noting that in the Myanmar border the figure exceeded over 1,000.

He said forest fires in Myanmar are mostly close to Thai border and in areas controlled by minority groups and where the Myanmar government could hardly access to.

He said the haze in the morning was mostly caused by burnings by locals particularly in valleys, namely Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, and Mae Hong Son valleys.

While in the afternoon, haze came mostly from burnings across the border in Myanmar, thus worsening the haze condition, he said.

He suggested persistent and stringent effort in fighting haze, saying it should start after the rainy season last year particularly forest fires and burning in forest areas.

He said the current haze campaign was considered too late.

He also said that haze problem could not be 100% solved because most forest fires were caused by burning to prepare land for planting short lived crops such as maize.

He said it needed joint effort by all relevant agencies and effective management in making fire protection zones.

He said the haze situation in Myanmar is 5-10 times more serious than in Thailand, thus have consequences on the Thai side, same as what Singapore was affected by forest fires in Indonesia.

But he said situation in Indonesia is improving, while Thailand was affected by repeated burning from maize farming.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/haze-may-linger-till-end-of-april


-- Thai PBS 2015-03-20

[sweatalot]

The haze in Northern Thailand may last longer till end of April unless fire hotspots across the border are put under control,

may be it would suffice to get the fire hotspots in Thailand under control

[Fiddlesticks]

Haze? Is that what Thailand calls the sickening, thick, smoke and polluted air that hangs over Northern Thailand like a blanket? One has to think this is a rather inappropriate euphemism for the pollution we are experiencing. But hey, if we can bulls*@t the tourists into thinking that we are experiencing "hazy" days, maybe they will still come and spend money. Have to keep our priorities in order.

[toybits]

This happens EVERY F##kin year and the "Experts" take pride in making such bold prognostication?

[marko kok prong]

Of course it could never be Kon Thai,causing the problem,i am just amazed public offcials can come out with this bs.

[lordblackader]

Weirdly enough there's a chance most of it will be temporarily gone this time next week: if you check the weather forecast, cooler days, and thunderstorms.

Crossing fingers...I'm over the choking smog, last time I'll ever be in Chiang Mai in March.

[Robby nz]

Not only in the north, just got back from Phu Toei National Park in Supan buri and the whole of the central area of the park from east to west is on fire of has been in the last few days.

Not a huge forest fore like you sometimes see on tele, but fire creeping slowly along the ground burning the dead leaves, as per so :

Not doing any real damage to the forest but spreading a blanket of smoke all the way across the central plains.

The staff say it is a natural phenomena, something to do with bamboo self igniting in extremely hot dry weather.

I remain skeptical as the fires seem to be centered on roads, think carelessly discarder cigarette butts.

[Rancid]

Off home in a week, time to let the lungs recuperate. Anyone want to buy a well used 3M mask?

[farmerjo]

It will continue as long as the sugar factories are open.

[Johnny S]

Maybe time to leave Thailand for some weeks/months and get some fresh air - it stinks here

[maidee]

no more water planes with 3000 liters of water to spray?

or some firetrucks hosing the air ?

[Dogbarker]

.......and still the locals are building bonfires with leaves and fueling with plastic ..

[Oziex1]

Reading these posts makes it clear to me that this country can't even get a fire to burn properly, just irritating smoldering smoke producers.

Unless it's a tourist bus when the brakes fail as in recent news.

[arunsakda]

I'm back last week of April Hope it clears sooner for everyone.

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