The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) plans to address air pollution problems in all areas and bring air quality up to international standards.
According to BMA Deputy Secretary Chatree Wattanakhajorn, the BMA plans to reduce the PM2,5 safety standard to 37,5 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3) from the current standard of 50 µg/m3. The agency also aims to lower the average PM2.5 value to the internationally used standards of the World Health Organization (Thailand is now well above that).
To meet these goals, BMA officials will work with other government agencies to prioritize the root causes of air pollution. Air quality control must improve to meet new safety standards, and Bangkok residents will be encouraged to take steps such as car maintenance and reducing car use due to air quality
BMA officials added that Euro 6 exhaust standards will be imposed on cars this year. Authorities also plan to ban the use of fuel over 10 ppm in the Bangkok metropolis by 2024.
Source: NNT- National News Bureau of Thailand
About this blogger
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Known as Khun Peter (62), lives alternately in Apeldoorn and Pattaya. In a relationship with Kanchana for 14 years. Not yet retired, have my own company, something with insurance. Crazy about animals, especially dogs and music.
Enough hobbies, but unfortunately little time: writing for Thailandblog, fitness, health and nutrition, shooting sports, chatting with friends and some other oddities.
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Nice plans. What is striking is that no date is set by which the target must be achieved.
The Euro-6 exhaust gas standard to be imposed this year is a utopia. There is probably not enough/not enough thought about enforcement.
A system to be introduced nationwide is preferable.
I think I've seen those plans pass by for many years, but they keep forgetting about the implementation.
It could have been about the Netherlands, so much hot air. You throw out some terms and sprinkle with norms and values. Then you hope that everyone will run after it. Unfortunately, that won't work in Thailand. What, how and especially when?
An acceptable air quality has been established worldwide with standard values and is measured and published almost worldwide.
https://waqi.info/#/c/14.803/105.582/4.1z
Giving farmers a subsidy if they demonstrably have a machine to prevent field burning.
Require taxi companies to drive electrically
Free public transport certain times a day
And so on, possibilities sat out from the state.
But already said you have to want more than a paper rule.
Warnings and fines are shrugged off or bought off.
So avoid.
The metro lines are constantly being worked on and one day they will be finished and a large part of those filthy city buses can be scrapped. I see something like that as hope 🙂
It is not true, Chris, that 'there is no environmental awareness at all' in Thailand. There have been many protests against the construction of dams, against deforestation, against mining and industrial complexes. A number of environmental activists have been murdered. It is true that the government and the business community do not care much about the environment. Profit comes first.
Have a nice chat. Yes, you are right that things can be much better. We can have a discussion about the how and why. But you are not right when you say that 'there is no environmental awareness at all' in Thailand. There were and are not only many environmental activists in Thailand, but also whole villages and large groups of people participated in protests. And there are quite a few initiatives for the problems you mention. Admittedly, too little.
To name a few environmental activists who have been murdered in Thailand:
Prajob Nao-opas, 43, was shot four times in broad daylight in Chacheongsao province, 20 miles east of Bangkok, after spending the past year fighting illegal toxic waste disposal by various industrial estates in the region. (in 2013)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/feb/27/murder-environmentalist-thailand-failure
en
The Thai government should urgently and thoroughly investigate the murder on July 28, 2011, of Thongnak Sawekchinda, a prominent environmental activist in Samut Sakhon province, Human Rights Watch said today. More than 20 environmentalists and human rights defenders have been killed in Thailand since 2001, and few of those responsible have been held to account. (2011)
https://www.hrw.org/news/2011/07/30/thailand-investigate-murder-environmentalist
More than 59 land and environmental activists have been killed or have disappeared in Thailand over the last 20 years, according to advocacy group Protection International.(200 to 2018)
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-thailand-rights-entertainment-idUSKCN1NK1I8
And a monk was killed in 2005 because he wanted to protect a forest (2005).
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to inform you of the brutal murder of Phra Supoj Suwajano, a monk who had vociferously been protesting against illegal logging in Fang district, Chiang Mai province. Phra Supoj was stabbed to death on 17 June 2005 after exposing a log-poaching network near his Santi Dhamma monastery and a dispute over this land with local influential businessmen. His murder is the latest in a growing list of environmentalists and human rights defenders who have been killed in Thailand in recent years.
http://www.humanrights.asia/news/urgent-appeals/UA-112-2005/
How many Thai people are implicitly killed by air pollution? Is anyone held responsible for that? Is anyone campaigning for clean air? Which political party is committed to clean air?
Do you know what happens? We measure too many bad particles in the air and everyone is advised to wear a mask. And we move on to the order of the day.
The COLLECTIVE consciousness is very poorly developed in Thailand and to the extent that it is invoked by the authorities, it is misused.
A final comment and some literature from Thai scientists.
The collective awareness of air pollution in Thailand is well developed and there has been a lot of campaigning for cleaner air. The fact that little or no solutions are proposed and implemented is due to the indifference of governments and the business community, and not of the people. The Move Forward Party has action for cleaner air in its program (although unfortunately without many details….).
Read the following article:
https://earthjournalism.net/stories/political-indifference-fuels-thailands-air-pollution-crisis
Quote:
Conflicts of interest, a lack of tough pollution-control regulations and enforcement and a focus on economic growth over environmental protection overshadow meaningful advances toward addressing Thailand's growing air pollution problems, experts say.
Well Tino Kuis the last thing I get out of it is 'collective consciousness of the people'
Yes, people complain, not because they have known for years that it is a downward spiral, but because it is bothering them.
The rest is correct, I simply gave 'the wallet' as an example.
As an academic you can't put it that way, of course.
The big cities can be described as sad with air pollution and the mentality of many of those residents as well.
The reasons why this is the case are described in detail there.