Thailand handles waste, haze problems

BANGKOK, March 22 (TNA) - Parties concerned in Thailand have been on alert to address waste and haze-related problems, with short and long-term measures needed for their prevention and solution. For the waste-related problem, academics of Bangkok-based Chulalongkorn University warned on Friday that there could be more fires at garbage dump sites in the country due to the hot weather, urging for standard landfills for wastes from communities and factories. The academics acknowledged that standard landfills now account for only 20 per cent of nationwide garbage disposal sites. The academics' remarks followed a fire which has burnt at an about 100-rai (2.5 rai=1 acre) garbage dump site in the Praekasa locality of Bang Pu Municipality in Bangkok's adjacent Samut Prakan Province since March 16, causing more than 800 people to fall ill, most of them suffer from eye irritation, while samples of blood and urine of 127 locals living in the 200-meter radius of the dump site have been collected for lab tests of any toxic contamination and even firefighters, reporters and local taxi motorcyclists have been suggested for medical check-ups. In Surat Thani Province in the Thai South, the provincial governor has declared a garbage dump site in the Nakhon Surat Thani Municipality where a fire broke out on March 19 and has not yet been totally put out a seal-off air pollution zone, while doctors have been sent out to provide medical check-ups for local people who showed signs of having respiratory problems. In the Thai North, high ranking officials of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment were visiting the region to inspect the haze situation, caused by forest fires and open-air burning of wastes and dried crops, and to speed up actions to ease or solve the problem, as heavy smog has blanketed areas in such upper northern provinces as Lampang, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son with small dust particles exceeding the safety standard. Meanwhile, the Department of Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation has carried on its daily rainmaking operations to help relieve smog and drought in nine northern Thai provinces since March 1, 2014. Summer storms have also helped ease haze in the region. (TNA)