Haze hits Thai South

SONGKHLA, August 13 (TNA) - Haze has remained blanketing the Thai South, but dust particles in the atmosphere has been at medium levels with no harm for local people. Wanchai Sakudomchai, Director of Thailand's Southern Meteorological Centre, East Coast, in Songkhla Province, said on Monday that a monsoon storm coupled with bush fires from Nakhon Si Thammarat and Phatthalung Provinces, also in the Thai South, as well as a fresh round of haze from Indonesia’s Sumatra Island are hitting people’s livelihood in the southern Thai region. Wanchai told reporters that pictures taken by satellite on Sunday found that spots of bush fires on the Indonesian Sumatra Island had dropped to 163, from 239 spots on Saturday, and that dust particles smaller than 10 microns in four lower southern Thai provinces, including Songkhla, Narathiwat, Yala and Satun, measured this early morning were at safe levels and should not pose any hazard to humans. Meanwhile, Nakhon Si Thammarat Governor Wiroj Jiwarangsan announced three more districts drought-hit disaster zones, after five districts in the province were earlier declared the disaster zones, following severe drought which has hit Nakhon Si Thammarat for several months, affecting tens of thousands of rai of ricefields and other farmlands. Artificial rain operations have been conducted since August 2, but there have been no downpours so far. Worse still, tap water in Nakhon Si Thammarat has stopped running since August 11 due to the shortage of raw water for the production of tap water, prompting provincial officials to have distributed water supply to several local communities. (TNA)