City authorities aware of need for public participation

As a further move in the attempts being made by the Chiang Mai Provincial Office of Natural Resources and the Environment, a new emergency call centre number has been announced. It is hoped that the new free call number – 1362 – will facilitate the reporting of burning of any kind within the city and its environs. City authorities are now making the air pollution problem an urgent agenda, and appreciate the need for public participation in its control.
Chiang Mai City’s specific problem is its geographical location on a flat plain surrounded by mountains. An inversion layer forms, preventing smoke, dust from dry earth, and fumes from escaping into the upper atmosphere, resulting in smog-like conditions and extremely poor air quality. Pollution levels are higher than, for example, USA-set safe levels, seriously affecting residents of the city who already suffer from respiratory illnesses and causing their numbers to increase. International publicity of this annually occurring problem also causes visitor numbers to drop, severely affecting the local economy. In 2007, the number of tourists visiting the city fell by 25%, and nearly 10,000 rai of forest were destroyed by fire.
The traditional “slash and burn” method of clearing and fertilising land, still employed by the majority in spite of new regulations and increased penalties, together with the burning of rubbish, including plastics and other materials which give off toxic fumes, combine, particularly during the hot season, to form a cocktail of polluted air which hangs above the city itself, unable to be dispersed. Should major forest fires or other conflagrations occur in the countries bordering Thailand, as happened in 2007 on the Burmese border, pollution levels soar still higher. So far, in 2008, there have been no such occurrences; as a result, city pollution levels are lower then in 2007. However, local burning still seems to be continuing, largely unreported and unchecked.
Plans for future solutions to the problem, to be inaugurated between 2008 and 2011, include preparations for local administration authorities to be able to buy plant debris from growers, farmers and villagers. This will be able to be processed into fertiliser and distributed back to its suppliers for use on their fields, thus obviating the need for burning. To aid in the control of forest fires, the National Parks Department has been able to lease channel time on a USA satellite which overflies the Northern area of Thailand, in order to swiftly identify and deal with outbreaks of fire. In the case of areas of forest already devastated by fires, replacement trees will be planted and supervised by the Forest Department to ensure their growth. 24 hour emergency call centres will be set up in each province and its districts, to enable residents to report fires as they occur.