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Thailand’s Prime Minister Orders Officials to Solve Toxic Haze Problem in Northern Thailand in Seven Days

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CHIANG RAI – Thailand’s Junta Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered officials to tackle worsening haze in Northern Thailand within seven days and ordered a manhunt for arsonists who deliberately set forest fires.

Wildfires and crop burning are blanketing the region with smog, prompting Thailand’s junta leader Prayuth Chan-Ocha to fly to Chiang Mai — the area’s tourist hot-spot — early Tuesday to review the crisis. The city’s air quality index was 379 as he visited, the worst major urban reading globally and a level that’s hazardous, according to IQAir Air Visual pollution data.

He offered moral support and urged members of the public to cooperate with the authorities by not burning in the open and to report suspected arsonists.

The air was classed as unhealthy in nearby Chiang Rai, where finance ministry officials and central bankers from Southeast Asian nations as well as China, Japan and South Korea will meet from Tuesday through Friday. The Bank of Thailand has said it will hand out pollution masks to media covering the event.

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General Prayut also donated face masks to be distributed to the public, as well as equipment and survival kits to officials involved in fighting forest fires.

Thai authorities blame crop burning to clear farmland, as well as wildfires in mountainous forests amid a drought and searing heat. Chiang Mai has set up a so-called safe zone for residents in a convention center, while a university in Chiang Rai canceled classes on Monday and Tuesday.

“The haze usually comes and goes within a week or two, but it’s been persistent this time — it’s the worst so far,” Khuanchai Supparatpinyo, the director of Chiang Mai University’s Research Institute for Health Sciences, said in an interview. “This can be quite dangerous, and pose health risks.”

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There were 732 hot spots in northern Thailand, including 159 in Chiang Mai, 69 in Chiang Rai, 85 in Lampang, 237 in Mae Hong Sob, 68 in Tak and 40 in Phayao.

Northern Thailand is a popular destination for visitors during the traditional Thai new year festival in mid-April but the smog is likely to make some holidaymakers think twice.

At the start of 2019, the military government was rattled by a second year of spiking seasonal air pollution in Bangkok, exacerbated by traffic fumes, industrial emissions and construction dust.

So far the episodes of smog haven’t damaged tourism but worsening haze could pose a challenge for an industry that’s key to economic growth.

By Suttinee Yuvejwattana

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