Haze, drought remain in Thai North, Northeast

BANGKOK, March 22 (TNA) - Several provinces in the Thai North and Northeast have remained under either haze or drought threat, as provincial governors have been tasked with strictly enforcing a ban on all burning activities to ease the haze and a total budget of up to almost three billion baht has been spent to assist locals in drought-stricken areas. Interior Minister Jarupong Ruangsuwan told reporters on Friday that he has been informed of the haze situation in the Thai North and has instructed governors and community leaders in the smog-hit areas to closely monitor updates and to provide immediate assistance to affected locals. Jarupong said that he has also ordered the governors of the haze-affected provinces to decisively punish those who cause forest fires or engage in illegal burning activities, as they are behind the spreading haze situation in the Thai North. According to the interior minister, dust particles smaller than 10 microns (PM10) have been lately found exceeding the standard level of 120 microgram per cubic metre in every affected province in the Thai North, except Tak. In Mae Hong Son Province alone, the minister noted, the dust particles have been recorded the highest, approaching 400 microgram per cubic metre, far beyond the safety standard, affecting locals’ health and provincial aviation activities. The Ministry of Public Health, in the meantime, has instructed local hospitals in the severely-smog-hit northern Mae Hong Son, Chiang Rai and Nan provinces to be well-prepared for the increasing number of patients with haze-related illnesses, both in normal and emergency cases. Deputy Public Health Minister Chonlanan Srikeaw acknowledged that dust particles with a diameter less than PM10 in the haze-hit Thai North, recorded by his ministry’s Pollution Control Department, have ranged between 78-388 micrograms per cubic metre on average over the past 24 hours. Mae Hong Son’s public hospitals recently reported some 10,000 patients with congenital diseases, while patients with respiratory illnesses have increased by five per cent due to the haze; so, up to 30,000 face masks have been distributed to locals, with additional 100,000 face masks having been reserved in case the haze situation persist; while public health volunteers have been assigned to even train the locals to make their own face masks. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative’s drought monitoring centre called a latest meeting with agencies concerned to discuss more plans to assist people in 38 drought-hit provinces, 15 in the Thai North, 17 in the Northeast, four in the East and the rest two in central and southern regions, one in each region. The centre reported that a budget of nearly three billion baht have been allocated to assist people in the drought-stricken areas, where 6.4 million rais of farmland and 4,300 rais of fishery farms have been damaged. The ministry's Bureau of Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation has also carried out its artificial rain making operations to raise water levels in major dams and reservoirs to be released to alleviate the drought-hit areas. (TNA)