Thailand’s polluted air has been a staggering issue for years now especially in the North where the air quality is reported to be detrimental to people’s health. But, as the rainy season is approaching, deluding our view that the air pollution has subsided, the opposite is true.
This year, Thailand is seeing worse haze than the previous. The air pollution is caused by various factors such as urban transportation, industrial pollution, forest fires and agricultural burning to clear the land for the next crop cycle–made worse by this year’s El Nino which makes the air even more dry and susceptible to burning.
The recent NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (a hotspot-detecting satellite) depicted South East Asia ablaze with active fires and thermal abnormality–almost 30,000 hot spots in Laos, Myanmar and Thailand.
Causes and complications
Danny Marks, assistant professor of environmental politics and policy in the school of law and government from Dublin City University further elaborated on the main causes that have been worsening air quality in Thailand.
- Urban Transportation–especially in the metropolitan area of Bangkok. As the number of personal cars have increased over 250% in the past 20 years and the law to tax old vehicles that emit pollution is still relaxed. Plus, Thailand’s adoption of Euro Emission Standard (vehicle emission standard for pollution) is also delayed.
- Industrial Pollution–Thailand’s environment regulation has been weakened by the current junta government that does not monitor small factories compared to other countries who have legislation to mandate industrial pollution. Moreover, Thailand has been working blind on reducing industrial pollution as it has no data base on factory emission.
- Forest Fires—The fires are directly linked to air pollution from SEA’s seasonal burning of agricultural waste for the next crop cycle.
Thailand’s agricultural haze is also a sign of outdated agricultural practices as agricultural burning is a cheap way, though illegal, to clear waste and increase yields. The fact that farmers are not able to afford high-tech machinery or hire workers to clear the waste also links to the poverty trap most agricultural families are facing.
“Slow violence”
Danny Marks further emphasized how air pollution is a “slow violence” inflicted on the poor more than any other group. The term is borrowed from Nixon’s book Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor as it refers to violence that occurs gradually and is usually out of sight–just like air pollution except that now the haze is visible.
As the poor workers have to bear the cost of living near pollution (such as factories, near construction sites or in a run-down neighborhood) and commuting through open-air decades old diesel public buses with high emission, the owners who caused pollution live far away from the pollution with equipped air filters.
“Ones who profit the most from biomass burning are Thai agribusiness conglomerates but they do not have to pay for this externality, breathe in the air from burning, or blame the government & public. Instead, impoverished, indebted farmers who themselves must bear the heavy costs of air pollution are sometimes cast as the villains.” Marks elaborated in a discussion panel on Southeast Asia on fire: Why do we have the world’s most polluted air? held at FCCT Thailand on Wed 6th, June 2023.
There are also problems of governance in prioritizing economic growth over curbing pollution causing many environmental acts to be postponed. Therefore, the Pollution Control Department can only monitor and report but not be able to take meaningful action to curb the pollution.
“ASEAN has no certain legal structures of cooperation among the countries. Most ASEAN agreements are not binding. Unlike Geneva Convention–right to claim damages from transboundary air pollution” said Dr Kanongnij Sribuaiam, associate professor, law faculty, Chulalongkorn University; legislative lead, Thailand CAN (Clean Air Network).
Possibilities for clean air
Decharut Sukkumnoed, member of parliament elect and director of Think Forward Center, Move Forward Party’s policy center said that the eight political parties who would (potentially) join the coalition had already discussed about the changes that the next government would like to bring to reduce purple and red zones in Chiang Mai and Bangkok (an unhealthy and dangerous level of air pollution indicators) to none at all in 2024.
He also revealed 7 measures for reducing PM2.5 from the Move Forward Party and other coalitions.
- Drafting the Clear Air Act (and also PRTR or Pollutant Release and Transfer Register)
- Allocating sufficient resources for forest fire protection (on average 3 million THB per subdistrict)
- Implementing Thailand’s GAP standard to stop imported maize from burnt areas. Trans-boundary Haze Pollution Act is optional
- Providing suitable options for farmers:
- Conditional financial supports for non-burning farm practices
- Buy-back residual blomass for 1,000 THB/ton
- Providing free (but compulsory) vehicle check-up for 3 months before the critical period
- Health screening for lung cancer in the northern area
- Developing safe spaces/areas for and providing free essential protection tools for all
Decharut also said that the coalition already planned an informal discussion later in June and would announce Target Indicator within a week. Besides that, the Thailand Clean Air Act draft done by initiatives of Thai people (developed and handed in to the parliament by Thailand Clean Air Network) is still waiting to be approved amid the haze of forming the next coalition government.
By Atikan Kulsakdinun
References:
