PUBLISHED: 24 Jan 2025 at 05 :20
Thailand and its neighbouring countries may work together to address the problem of PM2. 5 fog waste, Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said on Thursday.
He said Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was really concerned about the issue and has pledged actions to address it.
” This is a large issue, and it must be addressed at an international level while all parties involved in the country may also work together to address it,” said Mr Phumtham, who also serves as defence secretary.
He said he attended a conference in Vietnam a few weeks ago and learned more about how the adjacent country was struggling with the worsening cloud waste.
Mr Phumtham said some areas have been detected in neighbouring nations and that the Foreign Affairs Ministry had coordinate efforts with Thailand’s neighbours to fight transnational cloud waste.
Asked how the Defence Ministry and the armed troops can help address the issue, Mr Phumtham said he instructed the armed forces to possess products, such as robots, ready to support efforts to combat burns caused by slash-and-burn practices.
He added the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has allocated a expenditure of more than 400 million ringgit to local organizations to deal with man-made forest flames.
Bangkok government Chadchart Sittipunt said the PM2. 5 waste problem in the money is mainly caused by fuel fumes, compounded by fumes from spend losing in nearby provinces and bad air circulation in the capital.
All the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration ( BMA ) can do is to control vehicle emissions, he said, adding that one measure is to ban non-registered six-wheeled trucks or larger ones from entering low-emission zones in nine of the capital’s districts. This scheme became successful yesterday.
A complete of 259 surveillance cameras equipped with AI systems will be used to see for cars flouting the restrictions. He said that more than 2,000 cars have been registered thus much. From evening to 6am tuesday, 779 entered the areas. Of them, 725 were not registered, and the users may be fined, Mr Chadchart said.
The BMA’s heat value data center said PM2. 5 concentrations across the funds remained at toxic levels monday, averaging 71 microgrammes per square inch.